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Social organization identity: the benefits of ambiguity

Blair Winsor,J. Schouten,Priti Thapa

Published 2025 in Social Enterprise Journal

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, how Stella’s Circle, in St. John’s, Canada, a large, long-lived, social organization providing diverse services, created an enduring crisis-free identity. Data from 13 semi-structured interviews and document review was used to examine the organization’s relationships with its many stakeholders. Serendipitously, nuanced communication with elements of both ambiguity and clarity, enabled the organization to establish an enduring, crisis-free identity. To achieve this successful balance, the organization used powerful, yet ambiguous, words and labels coupled with customized narratives to manage stakeholder identity perceptions. Understanding the nuances of this organization’s communication can assist other social organizations create and manage a crisis free identity. Besides being the first-time, the tension between identity ambiguity and clarity has been scrutinized in this context. This work argues that social constructivist identity theory can be, beneficially, cross-pollinated with the concept of strategic ambiguity from communication theory to develop a fuller understanding of successful social organization identity management.

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