From Hopeful Heroes to Cynical Martyrs: Identity Work and the Path‐Dependent Identification with Maladaptive Logics

Scholars have long attended to both the persistence and change of institutional logic–identity constellations, but we know less about why and how organizational members might cling to a logic despite its evident maladaptive character and the resulting emotional upheaval. Based on a 5‐year ethnography of a conservation organization’s paramilitary campaign against rhino poaching, we induct a process model to show how the crisis‐induced adoption of a new logic and the corresponding identity work can have path‐dependent effects that tip hopeful heroism into cynical martyrdom and a dogged commitment to a maladaptive logic, with negative organizational implications. We identify three forms of identity work that act as self‐reinforcing mechanisms of this path dependence: polarizing, normalizing, and cynical coping. Elaborating the intersection of scholarship on institutions, identity work, identification, and path dependence, we explain how an initially valorized identity can twist into a darker, dysfunctional version of itself, with path‐dependent mechanisms contributing to organizational rigidity in the face of crises.