"You Is The Church": Identity and Identification in Church Leadership
type: CreativeWork
description: Churches provide a structured medium for human spiritual experiences (Ammerman, 2005) and as such are structured around a set of organizationally unique purposes and beliefs. This research project focuses on the leadership teams of a start-up church organization founded in Denver, CO. Guided by Structuration Theory (Giddens, 1984), Communicative Constitution of Organization through the Four Flows (McPhee & Zaug, 2000), and Organizational Identification (Scott, Corman, & Cheney, 1998), the bi-directional relationship between leaders and the organization was qualitatively examined and analyzed. Specifically, membership negotiation is seen through the constructs of formal structure and identity. The negotiation process was evident in the team through the process of communicating and enacting a DNA metaphor. Membership negotiation is found to encompass the negotiation of individual and organizational identity, as well as organizational identification. The church leadership team, as it currently functions, demonstrates the complexity of identity construction and maintenance within a highly participative and belief driven organization. Through this research there are implications for concertive control and organizational identification negating some of the role tensions for organizational leaders. Overall, structure and agency within the Pearl Church organization is the result of communicative negotiation of importance, belonging, and purpose.
abstract: Churches provide a structured medium for human spiritual experiences (Ammerman, 2005) and as such are structured around a set of organizationally unique purposes and beliefs. This research project focuses on the leadership teams of a start-up church organization founded in Denver, CO. Guided by Structuration Theory (Giddens, 1984), Communicative Constitution of Organization through the Four Flows (McPhee & Zaug, 2000), and Organizational Identification (Scott, Corman, & Cheney, 1998), the bi-directional relationship between leaders and the organization was qualitatively examined and analyzed. Specifically, membership negotiation is seen through the constructs of formal structure and identity. The negotiation process was evident in the team through the process of communicating and enacting a DNA metaphor. Membership negotiation is found to encompass the negotiation of individual and organizational identity, as well as organizational identification. The church leadership team, as it currently functions, demonstrates the complexity of identity construction and maintenance within a highly participative and belief driven organization. Through this research there are implications for concertive control and organizational identification negating some of the role tensions for organizational leaders. Overall, structure and agency within the Pearl Church organization is the result of communicative negotiation of importance, belonging, and purpose.
author: Gesler, Megan E.
keywords: church leadership, concertive control, identification, identity, membership negotiation, non-profit organizations, organizational identification, structuration theory
date published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:10:20Z
provider: University of Montana
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Montana