Exploring Positive Identities and Organizations

Building a Theoretical and Research Foundation

Laura Morgan Roberts, Jane E. Dutton

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781841697635
• eBook ISBN: 9781135419387
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

In the new world of work and organizations, creating and maintaining a positive identity is consequential and challenging for individuals, for groups and for organizations. New challenges for positive identity construction and maintenance require new theory. This edited volume uncovers new topics and new theoretical approaches to identity through the specific focus on positive identities of individuals, groups, organizations and communities.

This volume aims to forge new ground in identity research and organizations through a compilation of new frame-breaking chapters on positive identity written by leading identity scholars. In chapters that build theoretical and empirical bridges between identity and growth, authenticity, relationships, hope, sustainability, leadership, resilience, cooperation, and community reputation and other important variables, the authors jumpstart an exciting domain of research on new ways that work organizations are sites of and contributors to identities that are beneficial or valuable to individuals or collectives.

This volume invites readers to consider, "When and how does applying a positive lens to the construct of identity generate new insights for organizational researchers?" A unique feature of this volume is that it brings together explorations of identity from multiple levels of analysis: individual, dyadic, group, organization and community. Commentary chapters integrate the chapters within each level of analysis, illuminate core themes and unearth new questions.

The volume is designed to accomplish three objectives:

• To establish Positive Identities and Organizations as an interdisciplinary, multi-level domain of inquiry
• To integrate a focus on Positive Identity with existing theory and research on identity and organizations
• To map out a vibrant new research territory in organizational studies .

This volume will appeal to an international community of scholars in Management, Psychology, and Sociology, as well as practitioners who seek to generate positive identity-related dynamics, states and outcomes in work organizations.

Part I

Introduction

1

Positive Identities and Organizations An Introduction and Invitation

Jane E. Dutton, Laura Morgan Roberts and Jeffrey Bednar

CONTENT

Why the Time Is Right for This Book

Three Key Assumptions

Approaches to Positive Identity

Identity Content Can Be Positive

Identity Processes Can Be Positive

Identity Outcomes Can Be Positive

Roadmap for the Book

Chapter Summaries

Positive Identities and Individuals in Organizations

Positive Identities and Relationships and Groups in Organizations

Positive Identities and Organizations and Communities

The Invitation

References

When and how does applying a positive lens to the construct of identity generate new insights for organizational researchers? This is the broad question that unites the authors in this book as they attempt to jump-start an exciting new domain of scholarship in organizational studies that focuses on what we broadly call positive identity. Although the authors in this book use the term positive identity in different ways, they are all focused on illuminating and explaining identity content, identity processes, or outcomes that are beneficial, good, or generative in some way. This book forges a unique union among organizational scholars at the micro, meso, and macro levels interested in identity and positive organizational scholarship (Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003). This union opens up new research territory, reveals new theoretical insights, and blazes a trail for others to follow. We hope that the chapters in this book and the ideas and questions they inspire will impact organizational scholarship and the world of practice.

WHY THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR THIS BOOK

This book is timely for several compelling reasons. First, the current conversation about identity and identity processes in organizational studies is one of the fastest growing, most fertile, and perhaps most contested (e.g., Albert, Ashforth, & Dutton, 2000; Albert & Whetten, 1985; Alvesson, 1990; Ashforth & Mael, 1989; Bartel, Blader, & Wrzesniewski, 2007; Corley et al., 2006; Haslam, 2001; Hatch & Schultz, 2004; Whetten & Godfrey, 1998). The burgeoning literature on identity in organizational studies has been linked with “nearly everything: from mergers, motivation and meaning-making to ethnicity, entrepreneurship and emotions to politics, participation and project teams” (Alvesson, Ashcraft, & Thomas, 2008, p. 5). Identity is also a construct that is multilevel, giving it utility as a bridging construct in organizational studies (Ravasi & van Rekom, 2003). As a result, the ongoing conversation about identity permeates across levels of analysis and into numerous research domains in organizational studies.

The identity literature is founded on the basic assumption that individuals, dyads, and collectives are motivated to construct identities that are infused with positive meaning (Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999; Cornelissen, Halsam, & Balmer, 2007; Snow & Anderson, 1987; Tajfel & Turner, 1986; Whetten, 2006). However, researchers in this domain have spent a significant portion of their time focusing on how individuals, dyads, and collectives respond to identity discrepancies, deficiencies, or threats (i.e., situations where current identities are negative or inadequate in some way). Thus, we see a major opportunity to expand and develop the domain of scholarship on identity and organizations by seriously focusing on “positive” identity content, process, or outcomes. This focus on positive identity will deepen current knowledge about how individuals, dyads, and collectives navigate identity challenges to progress from “bad” (i.e., a negative or destructive state) to “good” (i.e., a more favorable state). Further, a positive identity lens can reveal exciting new insights into how entities reach beyond “good” to thrive, flourish, or become extraordinary in some way.

Second, individuals, dyads, and collectives face increasingly complex challenges in constructing and maintaining their identities (Blader, Wrzesniewski, & Bartel, 2007). Individuals are prone to work longer hours, in flexible arrangements, within several different organizations, and in multiple jobs or careers. In such a world of work, creating and maintaining a positive identity is consequential and yet more elusive. In a fast-paced, global society where organizational boundaries are becoming increasingly transparent, a deeper understanding of positive identity content and processes can reveal various ways organizations and their members can construct and maintain identities that are appropriately meaningful, legitimate, and stable yet also dynamic, flexible, and adaptable. A deeper understanding of positive identity processes can also uncover means that individuals, dyads, and collectives can deploy to sustain a sense of purpose, direction, and meaning in a world of flux.

Third, there is growing pressure on the field of organization studies and management to generate research with impact (e.g., Bennis & O’Toole, 2005; Hambrick, 2007). Impact means creating theories that stimulate thought, change understanding, generate actions, and/or produce valued outcomes. This book uncovers new theoretical insights that will inspire new questions about positive identity content and identity processes, deepen and change our understanding of theoretical mechanisms, motivate further exploration and research, and ultimately produce growth, authenticity, hope, well-being, trust, resilience, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and environmental sustainability for individuals, dyads, and collectives.

With these three motivations in mind, we designed this book to meet six goals.

1. To develop diverse perspectives on how individuals, dyads, and collectives can construct, sustain, and change positive identities

2. To provide individuals and collectives with ideas, concepts, and resources that will aid them as they strive to construct and to engage positive identities

3. To facilitate the integration of a positive identity perspective into new and established areas of organizational behavior and organizational theory

4. To establish positive identity as a multidisciplinary, multilevel field of inquiry and to facilitate and encourage cross-fertilization and interdisciplinary linkages

5. To offer a foundation for building a community of scholars in all stages of their careers and from various disciplines to pursue research that identifies antecedents, outcomes, processes, and mechanisms associated with positive identities

6. To bring positive identity to the forefront of organizational research by establishing, deepening, and broadening the link between the Positive Organizational Scholarship perspective and identity research

THREE KEY ASSUMPTIONS

As we enter this domain, we articulate three key assumptions that will provide some orienting ideas for the chapters that follow:

1. Identity is a core construct in organizational studies.

The concept of identity has a rich heritage in the social sciences (Gleason, 1983) and in organizational studies (e.g., Albert & Whetten, 1985; Bartel et al., 2007; Corley et al., 2006; Hatch & Schultz, 2004; Hogg & Terry, 2001; Whetten & Godfrey, 1998). Identity is a core construct used by organizational researchers in the micro, meso, and macro traditions that focuses on the meanings created and applied to an entity (Gecas, 1982), whether that entity is an individual (e.g., employee, customer, stakeholder), a dyad, a group, an organization, a profession, or a community. Identity is one way to capture an entity’s self-knowledge (Kihlstrom & Klein, 1994) and capture the attributes, characteristics, and narratives that are claimed by or attributed to an entity, helping to define what the entity is and what it is not.

2. Identity is influenced by social context and interaction.

For organizational scholars, the idea of contextual embeddedness is key (Dacin, Ventresca, & Beal, 1999; Granovetter, 1985). When applied to the construct of identity, researchers must take into account the varying levels of the situation that enable, mold, shape, and alter the processes, structures, and contents of identities. The chapters in this book consider the influence of context in many different ways. For some chapters it is the local relational context that matters. For others it is the team, organization, community, industry, or broader cultural context that influences how the researchers are thinking about positive identity processes, structures, or contents. These different considerations of context enrich our understanding of positive identities and illuminate new research domains and questions for future research.

3. Individuals, dyads, and collectives seek to construct positive identities.

Research has shown that this drive to construct a positive identity is equivalent to and sometimes even exceeds our most basic physical needs. For example, Snow and Anderson (1987) found that people in homeless situations expend considerable work in constructing positive identities even though they are often deprived of the most basic human needs. In addition, Ashforth and Kreiner (1999) theorized about the tactics used by “dirty workers” to construct a positive work identity despite performing tasks that are “physically, socially, or morally tainted” (Hughes, 1958, p. 122). Elsbach and Kramer (1996) examined how members of top-20 business schools responded to the organizational identity threats of deflated Business Week rankings by justifying or excusing the ratings. This inherent drive to construct a positive identity is a basic tenet of many identity theories (Ashforth & Mael, 1989; Tajfel & Turner, 1986) and critical to organizational scholars seeking to understand how individuals, dyads, and collectives can construct identities that are positive in some way.

We assume that a focus on the positive in, of, and from identity unlocks new insights about identity and organizations. Although critiques of a positive perspective on organizational studies (e.g., Fineman, 2006; Hackman, 2008) remind scholars to be careful to define and place limits on the meaning of positive, we have tried to attend to this concern by having chapter authors be explicit about how they are defining and using the idea of positive identity. As we describe in the section below, the chapters address the idea of positive identity in several different ways.

APPROACHES TO POSITIVE IDENTITY

In designing this book we intentionally avoided specifying key criteria that authors should use to define “positive” as it relates to identity. Instead, we hoped that our open invitation would spark a rich dialogue between authors regarding which criteria were best suited for examining different identity-related content, processes, and outcomes at the individual, dyadic, and collective levels of analysis. Engagement with the conceptual and empirical studies in this book reveals several useful ways of approaching the idea of positive identity in organizational studies. As Ashforth suggests in his commentary, the variety of takes on positive identity as discussed in the various chapters indicate its generative potential. At the same time, this diversity of uses of positive identity puts necessary pressure on researchers to be clear about the “domain, boundaries and nomological network” of this construct (Ashforth, Chapter 8, p. 7). At a very general level, the chapters in this book focus on identity content, identity process, or identity-related outcomes (or some combination of the three) as means for seeing and understanding what is positive, valued, or beneficial about an identity as entity or process.

Identity Content Can Be Positive

Several authors make explicit claims regarding positive identity content—or the core characteristics of an identity content that make it “positive.” A focus on identity content zooms in on the substance of an identity that distinguishes it as valuable, good, or beneficial. For example, Kreiner and Sheep (Chapter 2) specify five characteristics of a positive identity for individuals: competence, resilience, authenticity, transcendence, and holistic integration. Maitlis (Chapter 3) sees a positive identity as one that includes content that implies an individual’s understanding of his or her “strength and resourcefulness in the face of extreme difficulty.” MacPhail, Roloff, and Edmondson (Chapter 14) cast expert identity as a positive identity because it incorporates strengths, talents, and skills derived from education, work experience, functional background, and social memberships.

At the relational level, Kopelman, Chen, and Shoshana (Chapter 12) assert a positive relational identity is one where both parties in a relationship see the relationship as one that can overcome challenges and remain effective despite threats. MacPhail, Roloff, and Edmondson (Chapter 14) define a positive team identity as one in which members have accurate knowledge about one another’s expertise and shared affective attachment to the team and its goals. DeRue, Ashford, and Cotton () suggest that an internalized leader identity is a positive identity because leaders are often viewed favorably and that internalization is key for one to take on this positive identity. Ragins (Chapter 11) suggests that a mentor identity is a positive identity and explains how relationship experiences and social information can positively influence individuals’ current and future conceptualization of themselves as a mentor and their desire to continue mentoring others.

At the more macro level, Hamilton and Gioia (Chapter 19) assert that an impo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Series Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• PART I. Introduction
• PART II. Identities and Individuals in Organizations
• PART III. Positive Identities and Relationships in Groups and Organizations
• PART IV. Positive Identities and Organizations and Communities
• PART V. Conclusion
• Author Index
• Subject Index