Individuals can experience the urge to realize their desired work selves, inspired either by the ‘roads not taken’ in the past or positive images of the self in the future. Based on a qualitative study of healthcare professionals working in Italian community hospitals, we develop a process model of how communities of individuals who are unable to enact their desired work selves in their current occupations, create new entities to act as identity workspaces to host their identity work. They may do so even if they hold different desired work selves, engaging in interpersonal identity work. The processes of identity work and collective creation of an identity workspace are intertwined since the identity work of one individual is in an ongoing dynamic relation with the identity work of other individuals. People converge to play out their desired work selves in an identity workspace which is supportive. However, the heterogeneity of the desired work selves involved can lead to the individual’s identity work encroaching on the identity work of the others, and this heterogeneity results in impasse. This impasse is resolved only when individuals engage in interpersonal identity work, through mutual exploration and enactment of expanded work selves in an enabling identity workspace.

From Lone Wolves to Members of the Pack: Exploring interpersonal identity work within identity workspaces / Bertolotti, F; Tagliaventi, Maria Rita; Dosi, Clio. - In: JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR. - ISSN 0894-3796. - 43:4(2022), pp. 620-642. [10.1002/job.2589]

From Lone Wolves to Members of the Pack: Exploring interpersonal identity work within identity workspaces

Bertolotti, F
;
2022

Abstract

Individuals can experience the urge to realize their desired work selves, inspired either by the ‘roads not taken’ in the past or positive images of the self in the future. Based on a qualitative study of healthcare professionals working in Italian community hospitals, we develop a process model of how communities of individuals who are unable to enact their desired work selves in their current occupations, create new entities to act as identity workspaces to host their identity work. They may do so even if they hold different desired work selves, engaging in interpersonal identity work. The processes of identity work and collective creation of an identity workspace are intertwined since the identity work of one individual is in an ongoing dynamic relation with the identity work of other individuals. People converge to play out their desired work selves in an identity workspace which is supportive. However, the heterogeneity of the desired work selves involved can lead to the individual’s identity work encroaching on the identity work of the others, and this heterogeneity results in impasse. This impasse is resolved only when individuals engage in interpersonal identity work, through mutual exploration and enactment of expanded work selves in an enabling identity workspace.
2022
dic-2021
43
4
620
642
From Lone Wolves to Members of the Pack: Exploring interpersonal identity work within identity workspaces / Bertolotti, F; Tagliaventi, Maria Rita; Dosi, Clio. - In: JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR. - ISSN 0894-3796. - 43:4(2022), pp. 620-642. [10.1002/job.2589]
Bertolotti, F; Tagliaventi, Maria Rita; Dosi, Clio
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11380/1256239
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