Negotiating Identity Construction at the Work Life Interface

Abstract

Increasing demographic diversity in the workforce continues to destabilize the boundaries between work and life roles (Ramarajan & Reid, 2013), providing opportunity to examine how employees construct their identities in the midst of the work life interface. In this symposium, we present three papers that investigate this phenomenon through the lenses of gender, generation, and family identities. By doing so, we shed light on the intersection of professional identity construction with diverse social identities that influence how we make meaning of who we are in what we do, and the social mechanisms that limit or support the exploration of multiple possible selves in our careers and We integrate the Academy theme, At the Interface to consider how the negotiations of these boundaries influence the connection and separation of individuals with diverse identities from organizational definitions of what it means to have a career, a family, and a life. Understanding women's multiple identity manageme...