Spaces of Becoming: Toward a Better Understanding of How Modern Work Environments Make us Who We Are

Abstract

In this symposium, we bring together scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds and explore the experiences of a range of individuals embedded in “less traditional” organizational contexts. Such environments include a training program for aspiring entrepreneurs, a makerspace, a “lonely” workplace, and an innovation hub located within a larger firm. We ultimately consider how these various environments impact, and in turn how they are impacted by, their members. This focus allows us to reflect on the physical, social, as well as on the psychological structures that underpin today's organizing, surface the lived experiences of various groups of modern workers, and ultimately shed light on the mechanisms by which various types of environments influence their inhabitants, and vice versa. Ghosts of Rejections Past: How Experiences of Rejection Influence Individuals’ Possible Selves Presenter: Erin Frey; U. of Virginia Darden School of Business Presenter: Eliana Crosina; Babson College Presenter: Andrew C. Corbett; Babson College Presenter: Danna Greenberg; Babson College Makers: Authentic Fabricators or Fabricating Authenticity? Presenter: Howard Aldrich; U. of North Carolina All the Lonely People: A Dynamic Systems Perspective on Workplace Loneliness Presenter: Caroline A Bartel; U. of Texas at Austin Presenter: Norian Caporale-Berkowitz; U. of Texas at Austin Physical Environment as a Source of Creative Collaboration Presenter: Ileana Stigliani; Imperial College Business School