Workplace Identity Research Articles

Supporting the Sharing of Mental Health Challenges in the Workplace: Findings from Comparative Case Study Research at Two Mental Health Services.

Personal experience with mental health (MH) challenges has been characterized as a concealable stigma. Identity management literature suggests actively concealing a stigma may negatively impact wellbeing. Reviews of workplace identity management literature have linked safety in revealing a stigma to individual performance, well-being, engagement and teamwork. However, no research to date has articulated the factors that make sharing MH challenges possible. This study employed a comparative case study design to explore the sharing of MH challenges in two Australian MH services. We conducted qualitative analyses of interviews with staff in direct service delivery and supervisory roles, to determine factors supporting safety to share. Workplace factors supporting safety to share MH challenges included: planned and unplanned “check-ins;” mutual sharing and support from colleagues and supervisors; opportunities for individual and team reflection; responses to and management of personal leave and requests for accommodation; and messaging and action from senior organizational leaders supporting the value of workforce diversity. Research involving staff with experience of MH challenges provides valuable insights into how we can better support MH staff across the workforce.

Kant on Remote Working: a Moral Defence.

In this article I maintain that when employers could free workers from the space constraint of the office without incurring unbearable economic losses, it is morally wrong not to grant workers the possibility to work remotely, as this violates the humanity formulation of Kant’s categorical imperative. The article therefore aims to contribute to the development of Kantian business ethics, taking into account a series of empirical evidence gathered in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. I firstly discuss the Kantian concept of meaningful work and explain why, due to a prejudice that existed with respect to remote work before the Covid-19 pandemic, the issue of freedom from the office was not given normative relevance. I then introduce a Kantian argument in defence of remote work and proceed to discuss two objections. The first objection is that remote work may well foster productivity, but it creates problems in terms of innovation and training of new staff. The second objection is that remote work hinders rather than fosters meaningful work because it deprives employees of social relations and inhibits workplace identity. I conclude by explaining why neither objection undermines the normative argument that workers should be allowed to work remotely as long as the “bearable costs” clause is met.

Professional Identity Development of Iranian EFL Teachers: Workplace Conflicts and Identity Fluctuations

ABSTRACT This study aimed at uncovering complexities surrounding in-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ identity development. Literature still lacks knowledge about such process in the face of workplace conflicts and as to whether such conflicts vacillate EFL teachers’ imagined and practiced identities, especially in the context of Iran. To address this lacuna, three Iranian EFL teachers’ identity construction in the course of 4 years was explored through narrative inquiry. Data were collected through journals, narrative semi-structured interviews, and lesson plans. Drawing upon Activity Theory (AT), the findings underscored the fluid, collaborative, and negotiated nature of identity development. This study demonstrated how workplace climate, teaching milieus and power relations within, teachers’ personal ideologies and interpretations, and institutional demands may be used to garner insight into EFL teachers’ journey of professional identity development. This study has implications for educational authorities and teacher educators.

Examining oilmen’s notions of ‘fatherhood masculinity’ as a pathway to understand increased offshore oilfield safety behaviours

This study explores how notions of fatherhood masculine identity held by offshore oilfield workers positively influenced safety and risk predispositions in the workplace. Findings are based on a ‘rapid’, two week, embedded ethnography of a remote offshore drilling platform in the UK North Sea. Ethnography was reflective of the traditional two-week ‘hitch’ permitted for most UK offshore oilfield workers. Drawing directly from the workplace narratives of thirty-five oilmen labouring in a variety of different roles in the North Sea drilling sector, this study presents how oilmen working in the traditionally hazardous and ‘high risk’ industry redeveloped previously risky masculine notions of workplace identity. For many men, this process of reimagining was intertwined with fatherhood. Oilmen formulated “softer, safer” masculine identity practices founded upon notions of distanced breadwinning, self-preservation, and returning home safe to their onshore families. Such notions readily replaced - and rendered “outdated” - oilmen’s previous and historic identity narratives largely linked to risky and hypermasculine workplace norms. Identity reformations resulted in a safer workplace culture that normalised and respected men who upheld safety, and marginalised men who performed risky or dangerous workplace behaviours. Implications upon worksite safety and for future research are discussed.

Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery

Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery

The temporary knowledge workers’ autonomous motivation: Relationship-oriented human resource management construction and its mechanism

<p id="p00005">The rapidly changing technology environment makes “talent sharing” as a key way to acquire the required skilled and knowledge workers for organizations. Research on human resources management in sharing economy is an emerging field. Enterprises are facing great challenges for management on temporary knowledge workers. Due to the externality of identity and the weak relationship base with co-workers, the basic needs of competence and relatedness of temporary knowledge worker' are hindered, resulting in insufficient autonomous motivation, which in turn affect performance. Specifically, the challenges faced by temporary knowledge workers management are: First, temporary knowledge workers lack relationships basis with other team members due to the externality of identities, which in turn limits their professional influence, then their autonomous motivation are insufficient and in the results of low quality cooperation; Second, the relatedness needs of employees are difficult to satisfy due to the periphery identity (compared to the core employees of the organization), which hinders the formation of autonomous motivation, and then affects the workplace experience and cooperation performance. These two major challenges focus on how to deal with the insufficient autonomous motivation of temporary knowledge workers. <p id="p00005">In the literatures, professional influence of contract experts (DiBenigno, <xref xml:base="bibr" rid="b23">2020</xref>) and the establishment of workplace identity of non-core employees (Bolinger et al., <xref xml:base="bibr" rid="b13">2018</xref>) both depend on the workplace relationship building. Therefore, this paper from the perspective of motivation management, explores human resource management practices and its role in the mechanisms for temporary knowledge workers combined with relational coordination theory and self-determination theory. For temporary knowledge workers who are embedded in team work, the research explores the relationship-oriented human resource management constructs based on the relational coordination theory. The self-determination theory is used to explore how the relationship-oriented HRP improve performance of temporary knowledge employees. We verify the path from the source (relation-oriented HRP; high quality relationship), the formulation (satisfaction of competence need and relatedness need), and results autonomous motivation (knowledge sharing intention, knowledge sharing behaviors and job satisfaction). This research will: (1) exploring the composition of practices of relationship-oriented human resource management for temporary knowledge workers, by identifying the relationship-oriented human resource management practices and develop corresponding measurement tool; and (2) verifying the impact of relationship-oriented human resource management practices on performance. We will verify that the relationship-oriented human resource management practice influences the employees' autonomous motivation (satisfaction of competence needs and relatedness needs) by establishing high-quality role relationship, and then improve the cooperation attitude (willingness to share knowledge) and behaviors (knowledge sharing behavior). <p id="p00005">Research on the content and utility of relationship-oriented HRP is helpful for a deeper understanding on the management of temporary knowledge worker and give implication for management practice in sharing economy. First of all, this research will promote the understanding of relationship-oriented human resource management under the background of “talent sharing” time. Secondly, we explored the effect of the relationship-oriented human resource management from the autonomous motivation perspective, which beyond the "resource path" and "exchange relationship" of relationship human resource management research in previous studies. Finally, the research brings the high-performance human resource management in a new context and give enlightenment for workplace diversity management.

Concealment of a Sexual Minority Identity in the Workplace: The Role of Workplace Climate and Identity Centrality

ABSTRACT Concealing a sexual minority identity at work has been linked to adverse health and employment outcomes. The authors of this paper examine whether LGBQ employee levels of concealment from coworkers and supervisors are linked to perceived workplace climate and LGBQ-identity centrality. Rainbow Illinois 2010–2011 data were used; N = 319 LGBQ full or part-time employees. Multiple regression with moderation was used to test the hypotheses. Support and hostility in the workplace each had a negative main effect on concealment from coworkers as well as supervisors. The interaction between support and centrality was also significant. LGBQ employees who placed greater importance on their sexual orientation were more likely to disclose that identity to supervisors in the face of hostility than those with less central identities. Thus, sexual minorities may be more responsive to workplace climate when they have more central identities.

Creating “Risky” New Roles in Healthcare: Identities, Boundary-Making, and Skilling Under Rationalization and Consumer Demand

Healthcare is experiencing two countervailing pressures: to increase efficiency and be more responsive to consumer demands. Healthcare organizations often create new work arrangements, including “lay healthcare” roles, to respond to these pressures. Using longitudinal qualitative data, this article analyzes how one set of new lay healthcare workers attempted to construct a workplace identity, sell their value to existing professional workers, and navigate the precarious conditions of the new role. The authors find that workers in these new roles faced immense challenges stemming from their positions as “risk absorbers,” which ultimately harmed workers and reduced the efficacy of the new role.

Methods of Promoting Professional Agency at Work

In the midst of continuous changes in working life, finding a way to balance organizational demands and the needs of employees has become an important task. This task has highlighted the significance of agency and social interaction, as influencing factors that can enhance people’s potential to meet new learning tasks. In the Scandinavian and Finnish contexts, research institutions, in cooperation with work organizations, have developed practical methods to promote agency and learning at work. The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential of two different workplace development methods, identity (ID) training, and participatory action research (PAR) using dialogue forums if combined and applied as a two-level approach. The study asks what the characteristics of these methods are in general and if there are any key characteristics that could support their combined application. The research question is answered by a qualitative descriptive analysis of the literature on organizations, agency, and applications of the methods. The results shed light on and emphasize the intertwining characteristics of the methods. The research concludes with the hypothesis—to be tested in further research—that the methods are necessary for each other and recommends a preliminary investigation on the prevailing organizational culture, as a resource for organization-specific modifications.

Religiosity and identity interference among graduate students in the sciences

Individuals who hold an identity that is stigmatized in a particular social context will often, if possible, conceal that identity. While such concealment is intended to help the individual fit into that context, research has found that concealment often harms the individual's ability to form an identity and sense of belonging. The study presented here examines this dynamic as it relates to religious individuals in science. Past research suggests that being religious is a stigmatized identity within academic science and that many religious scientists conceal their religious identity to avoid that stigma. Using data generated from a survey of U.S. science graduate students and structural equation modeling, we examine concealment of religious identity among religious students and whether this concealment mediates a negative relationship between student religiosity and identification as a scientist. The analysis finds that religiosity is positively associated with concealment of religious identity, which itself is negatively associated with identification as a scientist. This study contributes to the sociological study of religion and science by shifting the focus away from epistemological conflicts and towards more social and cultural forms of religion-science conflict. These findings also contribute to research on identity conflict, stigma management, and the role of social identities in workplaces.

Can spirituality and long-term orientation relate to workplace identity? An examination using SEM

PurposeThe interconnections and relationships of workplace identity with a few organizational behavior concepts such as job involvement, commitment and turnover intentions have been identified by earlier studies. The present study was undertaken to find out the relationship of workplace identity with long-term orientation and spirituality.Design/methodology/approachSEM was performed using Python, on a sample of 365 respondents, using three validated questionnaires. The questionnaires used for the study were Spirituality Index of Wellbeing (SIWB), Long-term Orientation (LTO) Scale and Workplace Identity Scale.FindingsResults indicated significant positive relationship between workplace spirituality and workplace identity, as well as LTO and workplace identity. No significant relationship was observed between LTO and workplace spirituality.Originality/valueAn in-depth review of literature revealed that no previous studies have examined the complex relationship between workplace spirituality, LTO and workplace identity. Further, there are only few studies about the workplace identity and its relationship with other constructs. The present work was a modest effort to fill this gap in literature. The study has succeeded in making significant contribution towards management literature.

Manifestation of idiosyncratic rater effect in employee performance appraisal

Performance appraisal is the bedrock of talent management and has received much attention from scholars and researchers alike in their pursuit to develop accurate, objective, and robust Performance Management Systems (PMS). Through survey questionnaire the present study examines the prevalence of idiosyncratic rater biases on the performance appraisal systems and evaluates the measure of its impact. The correlations between the personality traits and the similarities of the raters’ workplace characteristics with the raters’ performance ratings are also determined. The study has provided empirical evidence of the manifestation of idiosyncratic rater bias in the company under study. The idiosyncratic rater tendencies showed a significant impact on performance ratings. It was seen that about one-third of the variations in the ratings were resultant of the idiosyncratic factors, such as similarities in the personality traits and workplace identities. It is also found that there exists a positive correlation between the similarities in the identities, as well as the personality traits of the raters and the ratees, and the way the rating awarded by the rater.

Deindustrialisation and health: mapping the mechanism of impact in the Hungarian rust belt

Abstract Background Industrial countries are undergoing a prolonged period of deindustrialisation, characterised by declining labour in manufacturing and extractive industries. Considering the urgent need to decrease humanity's overall environmental footprint, industrial transformation is imperative. Research showed that deindustrialisation correlates with worsening ill health; yet, little attention has been paid to mapping the complexity of the mechanism of impact. Methods Hungary experienced significant deindustrialisation in the 1990s and a parallel decline in life expectancy. Four medium-sized towns were identified in the Hungarian rustbelt: two moderately (25-50%), and two severely (&amp;gt;50%) deindustrialised. Between September 2016 and January 2017, 82 semi-structured interviews were conducted in these towns with subjects who were working-age adults in 1989 and who lived and worked in the interview towns in the following decades. The 816,118 words-long interview-corpus was analysed with qualitative thematic analysis using NVivo. Findings The interviews revealed that deindustrialisation affects health through multiple channels. Short-term mechanisms impact individuals directly, such as unemployment, deprivation and increased work-related stress. Medium-term mechanisms impact health through disrupting social hierarchies, social capital, local services, and workplace identities. Long-term impacts are latent, and influence health through territorial stigma, loss of working-class culture, and accumulated perceptions of injustice. Conclusions Deindustrialisation is a crucial contextual factor affecting ill health over the short, medium and long term. Going beyond the direct individual channel, involving communities and localities, the health effect of deindustrialisation represents a complex and layered mechanism with multiple explicit and latent components. Complex research approaches and policy responses are needed to address explicit and latent structural mechanisms alike. Key messages The study maps the mechanism of impact that links deindustrialisation and ill health in four Hungarian towns using thematic analysis of 82 qualitative interviews. Deindustrialisation affects health over the short, medium and long term going beyond the direct individual channel, necessitating complex research approaches and policy responses.

The (in)compatibility of identities: Understanding gender differences in work-life conflict through the fit with leaders.

Women's concerns about work-life balance are cited as a key factor underlying their continued underrepresentation in particular domains and roles. This gendered pattern is often attributed to factors in the home, such as women's disproportionate share of domestic work and childcare responsibilities. We offer an additional explanation that focuses on workplace identities. Across four studies, we demonstrate that perceptions of work-life balance are not only a matter of balancing time, but also a matter of balancing identity, and that the availability of attainable leaders plays a key role in determining these processes. More specifically, a survey study (Study 1, N=1223) among participants working in a historically male-dominated profession shows that gender differences in work-life balance perceptions are, in part, explained by women's perceived lack of fit with leaders and, in turn, their perceptions of incompatibility between who they are at home and who they are at work. In Studies 2 (N=207), 3a (N=209), and 3b (N=191), we demonstrate that gender differences in anticipated work-life balance can be ameliorated through exposure to attainable female leaders. These findings have implications for organizations that seek to recruit and retain women and demonstrate that issues of identity are crucial for facilitating work-life balance.

Sociability Between Coworkers and Social Fit at Work

Social interactions vary across workplaces, in part because workers and managers treat informal social interactions as a facet of workplace cultures, encouraging it in some instances and suppressing it in others. Equally, such interactions are consequential for social capital, and may be a dimension of cultural fit. Thus processes of status attainment and resource allocation may vary across workplaces in concert with their sociability. Using a new measure of time spent with coworkers, constructed using the American Time Use Survey, this paper shows that work explains a great deal more variation in sociability between coworkers than individual characteristics. The extent of shared workplace identities, influenced by occupational competition levels and union membership, and incentives to socialize are two important mechanisms in this process. Moreover, norms and expectations of appropriate behavior in the workplace accompany occupational differences in sociability, and matching these expectations is consequential for workers' earnings.

Construction and validation of Workplace Identity Scale (WIS)

Construction and validation of Workplace Identity Scale (WIS)

Narratives of International Women Entrepreneurs: An Exploratory Case Study of Identity Negotiation in Technology Startups

About the case: Female entrepreneurs play a significant role in new business creation, yet women's entrepreneurship stories remain largely absent in professional communication research. Therefore, a need exists to “give voice” to female entrepreneurship stories, and this exploratory case examines the unique identities that three female entrepreneurs express in their narratives. This case asks how three female entrepreneurs reconciled the discourses of entrepreneurship, gender, and culture to construct a unique entrepreneurial identity in their reflective narratives. Situating the case: Professional communication has only recently begun to explore entrepreneurship communication, and little of that literature explicitly investigates women's experiences. This case, by comparison, uses three conceptual categories—entrepreneurial identity, gender identity, and cultural identity—to explore how three women negotiated their workplace identities. Methods: We recruited three women who self-identified as technology company entrepreneurs, each from a different culture, and recorded their oral narratives about their entrepreneurial journeys. Three raters independently coded data drawing on dimensions extracted from prior literature to build “identity curves” for each narrative. Results: Analysis suggests that each participant negotiated discourses of entrepreneurship, gender, and culture differently, with the greatest divergence appearing on cultural codes, and the least divergence appearing on gender codes. Conclusions: Based on these results, we suggest that future research should begin with the assumption that no single “entrepreneurial identity” exists for female entrepreneurs, and more broadly that professional communication research should foreground differences among individuals rather than attempt to aggregate individual experiences into homogenous characterizations.

Migrating in Later Lives: Collective Identities of Russian-Speaking Women in Finland

Combining insights from transnational anthropology, anthropology of postsocialism, and the narrating identity approach in cultural gerontology, this paper investigates how Russian-speaking migrant women living in Finland account for their ageing. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork in an urban-based club for Russian-speaking seniors, including written and oral life stories. The research shows that Russian-speaking women have a very strong sense of collective identity that is anchored in master stories of (post) socialism, their transnational life trajectories, and families. First, women's active participation in the club for seniors generates a site of collective identity, which draws on a shared cultural and linguistic background. Their communal workplace identities continue to nourish their ageing in Finland and their participation in the club. Second, women's family positions, in particular as mothers and grandmothers, specifically in transnational families, forms another type of collective, which defines their ageing. Third, in response to migration, women also construct a transnational collective identity, which manifests in the ways they emphasize their relatedness to both Russia and Finland through their family histories. At the same time, ageing is an intensely individual process, and the paper explores how transnational seniors experience their ageing individually yet in dialogue with these collective identities. These findings call for more recognition of transnational and collective-based accounts of ageing to extend the framework of cultural gerontology.

The “Okay” Gay Guys: Developing Hegemonic Sexuality as a Tool to Understand Men’s Workplace Identities

ABSTRACT This research investigates gender and sexuality identity management among gay men. Thirty self-identified gay men participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews and provided their accounts of how they manage performances of gender and sexuality in the workplace. This research contributes to the scholarship of gender and sexuality by highlighting how sexuality, as an organizing principle, contributes to the further marginalization of an already marginalized population of gay men, via a concept I call hegemonic sexuality. The men’s narratives help us understand how certain performances of sexuality permit some men to be recognized as “acceptable,” while others are labeled “too gay” in different work environments. I investigate the motivations and consequences of men’s concerted workplace identity management strategies. I conclude by suggesting that hegemonic sexuality be used as a tool to understand how some gay men are deemed more acceptable than others in additional social spaces.

Co-Sexuality and Organizing: The Master Narrative of “Normal” Sexuality in the Midwestern Workplace

ABSTRACTHuman sexuality is a highly regulated but fluid construct that people communicatively organize around. What has been socially constructed as “normal” sexuality (e.g., preferences, rights, vocabulary, etc.) has shifted dramatically over time, and differently between communities and geographic boundaries. In workplace contexts, where policies and daily practices explicitly and implicitly regulate performances of and communication about sexuality, regional and cultural sexual “norms” can affect how people of diverse sexualities understand and experience their jobs. The Midwestern United States is a particularly complex and diverse region when considering sexual equality in the workplace. Using the lens of co-sexuality, this study explores how people identifying with varying sexual, gender, and professional identities in Midwestern workplaces explained their perceptions of “normal” sexuality and how it affected their workplace experiences. Participants drew on the master narrative of the Midwest, composed of perceived Judeo-Christian norms and a cultural discomfort with difference, and described feeling simultaneously pulled toward and pushed away from cultural sexual “norms” in their day-to-day work environments.