Blake E. Ashforth

Who they are

Blake E. Ashforth is an organisational researcher whose published work on this site is the 1992 alumni study written with Fred Mael, in volume 13, issue 2 of the Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Key papers

• Mael, F., & Ashforth, B. E. (1992). Alumni and their alma mater: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13(2), 103-123.

The paper reports that, among 297 alumni, identification with the college went with satisfaction, with sentimentality and with the college's perceived distinctiveness. It also went with making donations, advising others to attend and taking part in school events.

Key ideas

The authors treat organizational identification as the experience of an organisation's successes and failures as one's own, and they test a model of what goes with it. Their conclusions point to uses in alumni relations and in managing loyalty during mergers and takeovers.

The paper's concept is described at organizational identification, and the wider construct at group identification.

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