Examining the Construct of Identity and Its Relevance for HRD Theory and Practice or Turning the Lens of Examining Identity Inward upon HR Professionals

Abstract

This chapter draws the construct of identity into the human resources discourse. It examines identity theory, which is a robust stream of research in Sociology and Organizational Studies, in order to offer ideas about how identity relates to human resource practice. Identity is a multi-level construct that includes individual identity, personal identity, self-concept, and social identity. Each one of these aspects of identity has the potential to enrich what and how we think about human resource and career development practice. This chapter is novel because it interrogates identity from the perspective of the human resource and career development practitioner, rather than identity (mostly considered in the form of demographics, which is one but certainly not all of the ways that this chapter considers identity) from the perspective of the trainee, or employee. In other words, it examines identity of the trainer (or Organization Development (od) consultant, or executive coach, or mentor) rather than identity of the trainee (or employee, or mentee). The chapter presents a framework through which human resource and career development practitioners and scholars can visualize the relationships among and between human resource and career development practices, of human resource and career development practice, modalities (types of delivery), and implications of identity.