Organizational death and identity work: perspectives around the privatization of BR Distribuidora
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Abstract
This study was carried out with employees of BR Distribuidora following its privatization in 2019. Based on interviews, the research analyzed the subjective experiences of these employees to understand the meanings they attributed to the end of BR’s organizational identity. The analysis revealed how the decision to maintain or sever ties with the organization and the intensity of the threat to the self, influenced this meaning-making process. Those who chose to remain with the organization engaged in associative processes, ranging from the most to the least intense: assimilation, adaptation, and accommodation, whereas those who chose to sever ties engaged in dissociative processes, ranging from the least to the most intense: distinction, disconnection, and dysphoria. Thus, the intensity of the threat attenuates associative processes and aggravates dissociative processes. Moreover, in each case, different meanings were attributed to the end of the organizational identity, such as restart, transition, threat, rupture, and loss.
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