How 'Feeling Misidentified' Impacts an Individual's Attitudes and Performance at Work

Abstract

Internal identity asymmetry is the experience of having one’s identity mistaken by important others at work. That is, it is an experienced discrepancy between the way an individual self-identifies, and how they believe their colleagues see them. Through two field studies of over 300 individuals in work environments, we provide a first empirical investigation of the consequences of internal identity asymmetry for individuals in the context of their work. In our first study, we find that internal identity asymmetry is related to negative impacts on individuals’ attitudes toward their work (e.g., satisfaction and turnover intentions). Our second study replicates our findings and further examines its impact on individual performance, while exploring the moderating role of how the individually appraises the asymmetry. We find that the while the internal identity asymmetry has negative impacts on individual attitudes towards work, its impact on performance is critically moderated by an interaction between negative affect toward the asymmetry and an individual’s evaluation of their coping resources. Our findings suggest that if an asymmetry is not appraised as negative, and the individual has high coping resources, the experience of internal identity asymmetry may result in a positive impact on an individual’s performance at work.