From lone wolves to members of the pack: Exploring interpersonal identity work within identity workspaces
Published in: Journal of Organizational Behavior
Unveiling the Social Symphony of Work Identities.
We live in a world where our careers are more dynamic than ever. Understanding how we shape our work selves becomes crucial as we navigate through evolving professions. In this research, we enter into the intricacies of crafting your professional identity within identity workspace, and we learn how to innovate professions with continuous negotiation with peers and spaces.
What is your desired work self?
Work isn't just a 9-to-5 routine; it's a pervasive part of our lives, shaping our beliefs on what we should achieve and how we evolve professionally. As careers shift and new occupations emerge, individuals envision repertoires of desired work selves, eager to bring them to life. Individuals try to reach their desired work self through verbal, physical, or cognitive tactics. We call this effort “the construction of work identities” or “identity work.”
Discover the dynamic Dance of Identity Work.
Despite acknowledging the role of social relationships, existing theories often overlook the dynamic negotiation of desired work identities through real interactions.
Picture this: you are an engineer, and you want to shift towards a new work identity, so you enroll in an MBA, and when you go back to work, you’ll engage with others who variously can validate, question, ignore, or resist your efforts. Identity work theories know this process very well: individuals enact agentic efforts to progress toward their desired work identities within the constraints and resources provided by their social context.
What happens if you decide to reach your own personal work self by joining forces with peers and going beyond the status quo? In this case, “others” are real interaction partners, not only validators or resistors.
It's time to unravel the dynamic dimension of identity work theories and discover the huge innovation impact that the ones who applied it obtained.
Unlocking the Collective Potential.
Now Picture this: When an individual can't fully embody their desired work self, they join forces with peers to ideate a new identity workspace. But here's the twist—differences in desired work selves can turn established spaces from supportive to challenging. It's a delicate dance of progression.
Healthcare Professionals Unveil Insights.
Embarking on a qualitative field study, we delved into the world of healthcare professionals shaping new organizational arrangements, specifically community hospitals. Our findings reveal a fascinating story that explains how community hospitals were born and developed across Italy. This is a story of the interplay between the collective creation of an identity workspace (the community hospital) and the individual identity work of individual doctors, nurses, and managers.
The Magic of Interpersonal Identity Work
Yet, when individuals appreciate how others' desired work selves align with their progression, the dance becomes truly interpersonal. The identity workspace transforms into an enabling force, allowing participants to enact their desired work selves while incorporating elements of others' aspirations into their own.
Contributions to Identity Work Literature.
Our research shifts the spotlight from individual changes to the collective co-construction of identity workspaces. We explore how individuals' identities work, intersect, and interact with others, creating an ongoing interpersonal process.
We go deep on learning what happens when the heterogeneity of the desired work selves involved can lead to the individual's identity work encroaching on the identity work of the others, and this heterogeneity results in an impasse. We show that this impasse is resolved only when individuals engage in interpersonal identity work through mutual exploration and enactment of expanded work selves in an enabling identity workspace.
Additionally, we propose that the identity workspace is co-constructed as people progress toward their desired work selves.
Ready to experiment?
So, whether you're climbing the corporate ladder or shaping the future of your workplace, remember, you are not the only one who has desired work selves! Find peers, build your identity workspace, and be ready to co-construct. Embrace the journey, collaborate, and watch the magic unfold.
Read the full article.
Authors at the Department of Management
CLIO DOSI – Assistant professor
Academic disciplines: Management Engineering
Teaching areas: Organization science, Innovation.
Research fields: Innovation Methodologies, Design thinking, Healthcare Innovation, Research centers.
Management engineer with a PhD in General Management (2014). Her research is about the organizational dynamics that enable innovation, and she is passionate about understanding how organizations manage and design innovation. Visiting scholar at Esade Business School (2022), HPI Hasso Plattner Institute (2020), and Cass Business School (2014). She is a CERN Ideasquare fellow. She supports the Design factory of the University of Bologna, where she coordinates Oper.lab observatory of open innovation of the Department of Management.