Professional identity reconstruction: Attempts to match people with new role expectations and environmental demands

Abstract

Organizations increasingly find themselves in circumstances that generate a need for creating novel identities to deal with novel situations. Through a qualitative study of a professional education programme for military career officers, I explore the reconstruction of professional identities in light of what is perceived as a complex, demanding and changing environment. I found that the programme promoted images and worldviews of an ideal and desired professional identity, which did not match the role transitions and expectations to be enacted by the participants. In addition, the findings show how cultural and organizational dynamics constrained processes of identity reconstruction in the learning context. Implications of the study (e.g. how to theorize and learn from attempts to match people with new role expectations and environmental demands) are discussed. By building bridges across socialization theory, identity work and research on identities in context, and hereby integrating micro- and macro perspectives on professional identity reconstruction, existing theory is elaborated. The article concludes by pointing to the analytical value of exploring how professionals in later stages of their careers struggle to adopt timely and relevant identities and how we better understand the challenges stemming from this identity reconstruction work.