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Projecting Different Identities: A Longitudinal Study of the “Whipsaw” Effects of Changing Leadership Discourse About the Triple Bottom Line

Author

Listed:
  • Julie Bayle-Cordier

    (IESEG - School of Management (LEM), LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Philip Mirvis
  • Bertrand Moingeon

    (GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

This article focuses on changes in leadership's discourse about the "triple bottom line" in Ben & Jerry's ice cream from its founding days through to its acquisition by and integration into Unilever. For this study, we analyzed CEO claims about "who we are" from their letters in annual reports (what we label projected identity). A sample of employees (both long-service and relative newcomers) were interviewed about their perceptions of Ben & Jerry's over the 30 years covered. Findings reveal that successive CEOs stressed different "logics" about the business and what would make it successful over the years with the founders emphasizing a strong linkage between the economic, product, and social components of the company's triple bottom line and their next three successors decoupling these components and pushing, each in different ways, for stronger financial returns. As a result, organization members were "whipsawed" between their CEOs' different logics and identity claims. The CEO letters exhibit a progression over time from a more normative to utilitarian tone familiar in the organizational identity literature. The messaging shifts, however, when a fifth CEO takes charge and reintegrates the firm's triple bottom line. Thus, the firm's projected identity evolved in a U pattern starting with an integrated triple bottom line logic, shifting to a more linear logic where the economic mission dominates, and then reintegration where multiple bottom lines are embraced once again. Here, we explore both the strategic (external) and personal (internal) challenges informing the different CEOs' messages over years, the whipsaw effect on staff, and the longer term evolution of projected identity in the company and reemergence of its integrated triple bottom line. This study contributes to the corporate social responsibility and organization identity literatures by documenting how CEOs (and their company) must struggle with maintaining an integrated triple bottom line in the context of commercial challenges and major changes involved in mergers and acquisitions. It also speaks to the practical matters of keeping normative traditions alive amid competing pressures for change.

Suggested Citation

  • Julie Bayle-Cordier & Philip Mirvis & Bertrand Moingeon, 2015. "Projecting Different Identities: A Longitudinal Study of the “Whipsaw” Effects of Changing Leadership Discourse About the Triple Bottom Line," Post-Print hal-01563028, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01563028
    DOI: 10.1177/0021886314553100
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    Cited by:

    1. Aaron T. McDonald & Catalin Ratiu & Beverlee B. Anderson, 2023. "Reputational Considerations in Firm Response to Social Issues," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(3), pages 192-202, August.
    2. Lorea Narvaiza & Cristina Aragon & Cristina Iturrioz & Julie Bayle-Cordier & Sandrine Stervinou, 2017. "Cooperative Dynamics During the Financial Crisis: Evidence From Basque and Breton Case Studies," Post-Print hal-01414168, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    triple bottom line; projected identity;

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