Product identity leads to organizational activation in crisis

Abstract

An organization is said to be in an activated state if “(1) the members have a common purpose and (2) they are actively willing to contribute action to accomplish this common purpose” (Takahashi, 1992). Problem solvers that fulfill requirements (1) and (2) play an active role in an activated state. At Company A, which is discussed in this paper and was in a crisis with its performance, employees demonstrated initiative to activate the organization by pursuing Product Identity rather than corporate identity with regard to (1) above. Moreover, this activation started to expand to other companies because of its nature as Product Identity.