Despite surging interest in the role of place in organizational studies, the concept has been largely missing from the study of organizational identity dynamics. We address this gap through a 19-month-long ethnographic study of a social service organization – Better World (a pseudonym), located in the downtown core of a Western Canadian city. We uncover how experiencing a place disruption that changed Better World’s neighbourhood and threatened its existence in its building shaped the evolution of organizational identity at Better World. We show that upon experiencing place disruption, members further grounded the organization in its building and location, revealing a strongly emplaced organizational identity. We contribute by theorizing a strong, previously overlooked relationship between place and organizational identity, and showcasing the evolution of organizational identity as a political process with place disruption at the core of the process.
