Institutional Pressures and Organizational Identity: The Case of Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau in the GDR and Beyond, 1945–1996. Issue 3 (11th December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schreiter, Katrin; Ravasi, Davide
• Is Part Of: Business history review. Volume 92:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 453
• Page End: 481
• Publication Date: 2018-12-11
• Subjects: organizational identity, -- institutional pressures, -- sociopolitical legitimacy, -- conformity, -- product design, -- planned economy, -- GDR, -- Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau; Business -- Periodicals; Business -- History -- Periodicals; 330.09
• DOI: 10.1017/S0007680518000776
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0007-6805

Abstract

Abstract : This article explores the case of Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau (DWH)—a furniture and interior manufacturer founded in 1898—through state socialism after 1945 and reprivatization in the 1990s. Our analysis suggests that the firm's survival through multiple systemic disruptions was partly due to the preservation of a unique identity despite heavy institutional pressures for conformity. DWH adopted a "mixed conformity" strategy that attempted to pitch multiple concerns (cultural-aesthetic, ideological, economic) of political authorities against one another to buffer sociopolitical pressures, thus ultimately conforming to some (identity-consistent) demands, while violating other (identity-threatening) ones. This allowed DWH to successfully navigate tensions between sociopolitical expectations and the need to preserve a collective sense of distinctiveness and continuity over time.