Managing the interactions between multiple identities in inter-organizational collaborations: an identity work perspective

Inter-organizational collaboration (IOC) research considers the achievement of a collaborative identity as a key enabler of a successful collaboration. As a result, little has been said about the interactions between collaborative and non-collaborative identities. We build on narrative identity work and positioning theory, to explore how collaboration partners engage in identity work positioning to manage the interactions of the multiple identities emerging through the process of collaboration as they try to accomplish collaborative work. We illustrate this process through a qualitative longitudinal study of an educational partnership in Greece. Our analysis shows how IOC partners manage the interactions between collaborative and non-collaborative identities by positioning themselves, and others, in narratives of collaboration as part of their daily identity work when responding to emerging collaborative needs. Our research extends our current understanding of identity work processes in IOCs by demonstrating the paradoxical nature of the collaboration, which requires relying on both collaborative and non-collaborative identities for the successful achievement of aims. We therefore suggest that identity tensions should not be resolved but rather managed, since they enable partners to respond creatively to contextual organizational changes and make sense of the collaboration as it happens.     

Redundant men: constraints on identity change

In this article the constraints on identity change for a group of working class men experiencing long‐term unemployment in the UK is examined. Despite their lack of access to paid employment, these men continued to construct their gender identity around the breadwinner persona. The theoretical framework employed concepts from both Connell and Bourdieu. Based on discourse analysed data collected from a series of four loosely structured group discussions, it is argued here that these men had (i) less access to capital generally and (ii) reduced access to ‘useful’ types of capital resources. In other words, these groups of men have fewer resources to hand in constructing masculine identities that reflect the changing structural and ideological demands of the current social‐historical period. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Situational variations in ethnic identity across immigration generations: Implications for acculturative change and cross‐cultural adaptation

This study examined whether the acculturation of ethnic identity is first evident in more public situations with greater opportunity for intercultural interaction and eventually penetrates more intimate situations. It also investigated whether situational variations in identity are associated with cross‐cultural adaptation. First‐generation (G1), second‐generation (G2) and mixed‐parentage second‐generation (G2.5) young adult Canadians (n = 137, n = 169, and n = 91, respectively) completed a questionnaire assessing their heritage and Canadian identities across four situational domains (family, friends, university and community), global heritage identity and cross‐cultural adaptation. Consistent with the acculturation penetration hypothesis, the results showed Canadian identity was stronger than heritage identity in public domains, but the converse was true in the family domain; moreover, the difference between the identities in the family domain was attenuated in later generations. Situational variability indicated better adaptation for the G1 cohort, but poorer adaptation for the G2.5 cohort. For the G2 cohort, facets of global identity moderated the relation, such that those with a weaker global identity experienced greater difficulties and hassles with greater identity variability but those with a stronger identity did not. These results are interpreted in light of potential interpersonal issues implied by situational variation for each generation cohort.     

The role of identity and work–family support in work–family enrichment and its work-related consequences

Despite growing research on the positive connections between work and family, antecedents and consequences of work–family enrichment are understudied. Using a sample of employees from a major insurance company, we assessed the relationship of (i) individual (i.e., work and family identities), (ii) family (emotional and instrumental support), and (iii) organizational (benefit use and work–family culture) antecedents to work–family and family–work enrichment. We also examined whether enrichment predicted important work outcomes including organizational commitment and turnover intentions. The strength of an individual’s identity and informal or emotional support within a domain, rather than formal or instrumental support, were associated with greater enrichment. Work–family enrichment positively predicted affective organizational commitment, and family–work enrichment negatively predicted turnover intentions. Implications for individuals and organizations wanting to foster enrichment are discussed.     

Issues of Identity Development Among Asian-American Lesbians and Gay Men

This study examined the factors that affect an Asian-American individual's choice of identification with Asian-American and lesbian or gay identity. Nineteen Asian-American lesbians and 16 Asian-American gay men belonging to Asian-American lesbian or gay organizations answered survey questionnaires. Results indicated that most of the respondents identified more strongly with their lesbian or gay identities than with their Asian-American identities; however, most indicated that acknowledgment of both aspects of identity was preferred. Other situational factors, including disclosure of lesbian or gay identity to family and to the Asian-American community, as well as discrimination because of sexual orientation, race, and gender, were examined in regard to identity development.     

The moderating role of work pressure on the relationships between emotional demands and tension,exhaustion, and work engagement: an experience sampling study among nurses

The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of state work pressure (conceived as a hindrance demand) on the relationships between situational emotional demands (conceived as a challenge demand) and tension, emotional exhaustion and work engagement within nursing while considering job resources as covariates. Ninety-seven nurses from two German hospitals provided 1026 measurements. Multilevel analyses indicated a significant Work Pressure × Emotional Demands interaction for emotional exhaustion, with high situational work pressure exacerbating the positive association between state emotional demands and emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, work pressure moderated the relationship between emotional demands and vigour: state emotional demands related negatively to vigour only when work pressure was higher than usual, while the relationship was non-significant when work pressure was lower than usual. For dedication, similar results were obtained: state emotional demands were negatively associated with dedication only when combined with high situational work pressure; with low situational work pressure, state emotional demands did not relate to dedication. Contributing to the job demands-resources literature, this study shows that there are stress-exacerbating and stress-buffering interactions between different job demands from a within-subject perspective. However, we did not find positive relationships between challenge demands and work engagement, even in the case of low situational hindrances, indicating that there are conditions for the functioning of job demands as a challenge beyond hindrances.     

Bringing social identity to work: the influence of manifestation and suppression on perceived discrimination, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions

In the current article, we explored whether manifesting or suppressing an identity (race/ethnicity, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, or disability) at work is related to perceived discrimination, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Participants included 211 working adults who completed an online survey. The results showed that efforts to suppress a group identity were positively (and behavioral manifestations of group identity negatively) related to perceived discrimination, which predicted job satisfaction and turnover intentions. These results suggest that diverse employees actively manage their nonwork identities while at work and that these identity management strategies have important consequences.     

Equality and differentiation of time spent in paid work in two-income families

The cumulative data from the National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey for 1972–1978 are used to test a model of allocation of time to work in families in which both spouses are employed. Using number of hours worked during the previous week as a dependent variable, we find that for white respondents, women work fewer hours than men; fathers of preteenaged children work more hours than other men, while mothers of preteens work fewer hours than other women; both men and women work more hours when they have higher prestige occupations; and both work more hours if their status (measured by education and prestige) is equal to or higher than their spouses'. Number of hours reported for spouse in the previous week is positively related to number of hours reported by respondent. The model suggests that within two-income families equality of occupational status is associated with equality of occupational involvement, while inequality of occupational status is associated with lower occupational involvement of the spouse with lower status.     

Young Adults' Anticipated Identity Importance of Career, Marital, and Parental Roles: Comparisons of Men and Women with Different Role Balance Orientations

This article discusses two studies that exploredcollege students' role balance expectations for theirfuture career, marital, and parental identities.Participants were primarily Caucasian. In the first study, men and women who were family, balanced,career, or career/marriage oriented were compared.Variation within gender, especially for women, in theareas of gender attitudes, gender attributes, role identity salience, and anticipated roleacquisition were found. Similarities between gender alsoemerged. The second study examined young adults'perceptions of their parents' identity importance androle balance orientations. Although some genderdifferences emerged, young men and women holding thesame role balance orientation were often similar intheir perceptions of their parents. Taken together,these studies provide evidence that contradictsprevious assumptions about gender differences inexpectations for work and family roles.     

Construction of gender roles in perceived scarce environments – Maintaining masculinity when shopping for fast fashion apparel

Gender refers to ways men and women socialize into the male and female roles that are commonly attributed to them. These roles are continuously (re)constructed within and through our daily activities. Prior literature suggests a need for more research in investigating how men and women construct their identity in various exchange situations and in various cultural settings. This paper explores the situational construction of male and female identities (especially the male one) when shopping for fashion products in environments with strategically created scarcity. The findings of this study suggest that, when shopping for fashion products in scarce environments, men and women tend to exhibit gendered behaviors that are considered more consistent with their traditional gender norms. We find that men, although concerned about their appearance, adhere to urgent buying behavior. This behavior helps men maintain some of their traditional masculine identity. In addition, they do not participate as frequently in the in‐store hoarding and in‐store hiding that are more frequently exhibited by women and that are more consistent with a feminine identity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making the invisible visible: fear and disclosure of sexual orientation at work

Stigma theory was used to examine the fears underlying the disclosure of a gay identity at work. Using a national sample of 534 gay, lesbian, and bisexual employees, this study examined the antecedents that affect the degree of disclosure of a gay identity at work and, for those who had not disclosed, the factors that influence their fears about full disclosure. Employees reported less fear and more disclosure when they worked in a group that was perceived as supportive and sharing their stigma. Perceptions of past experience with sexual orientation discrimination were related to increased fears but to greater disclosure. For those who had not fully disclosed their stigma, the fears associated with disclosure predicted job attitudes, psychological strain, work environment, and career outcomes. However, actual disclosure was unrelated to these variables. The utility of fear of disclosure for understanding processes underlying the disclosure of gay and other invisible stigmatized identities in the workplace is discussed.     

Self-uncertainty,social identity prominence and group identification

Drawing on uncertainty-identity theory (Hogg, 2007) and referring to the concept of social identity complexity, we conducted two experiments to test the hypothesis that people would identify most strongly with their group if they felt both self-uncertain and that their group's identity was prominent relative to other identities, either because it was distinct from other identities or because they had few other identities. Self-uncertainty was primed in both experiments after participants had been primed to consider their group's attributes to overlap with or be distinct from the attributes of other identities of theirs (Experiment 1, N = 90) or to consider few or multiple other identities they had (Experiment 2, N = 87). As predicted, group identification was strongest under high uncertainty and when identity distinctiveness or few other identities had been primed. Implications of this research for how we conceptualize identity complexity are discussed.     

Psychology at the intersection of work and family: recommendations for employers, working families, and policymakers

Demographic data show that major changes have been occurring in the everyday lives of families over the last generation, with the majority of mothers of young children in the workforce and an increasing number of men and women assuming caregiving responsibilities for older relatives. Thus, the 2 primary identities of most adults, defined by their multiple family and work roles, need to be coordinated in ways that promote positive family outcomes, returns on investments for employers, and societal values. Despite changes in the workforce, the world of work is still largely organized for a family model that is increasingly rare--one with a stay-at-home caregiver. Recommendations based on psychological and other social science research are offered to align the needs of working families and employers.     

Human capital,acculturation and social identity: Bosnian refugees in Australia

This article explores the processes of acculturation and identity among refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina who resettled in the Australian cities of Perth and Sydney during the 1990s. We start from the idea that refugees, through the process of forced migration, lose aspects of their identities that were embedded in their former communities, jobs, skills, language, and culture. Upon arrival in a new society, they seek to reconstruct their identity, and we argue that this happens in the context of the process of acculturation. We use two social psychological perspectives, social identity theory and acculturation theory, and the sociological theory of the migration of human capital, to examine our data collected by qualitative research methods from refugees and Australian professionals who work in the government‐funded refugee resettlement programme. Our data highlight the loss of identity experienced in forced migration, difficulties in refugee acculturation and identity reconstruction, and collective and individual strategies in acculturation and identity adaptation. We see our perspective as essentially interdisciplinary, and take an interactional view of the acculturation and identity processes, as the characteristics of both the host society and the immigrants affect them. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linking Job Work Hours to Women’s Physical Health: The Role of Perceived Unfairness and Household Work Hours

Although the relationship between job work hours and women’s physical health has been examined, limited empirical research examines the family demand conditions that explain this relationship. Given the challenge of integrating work and family demands, we examine the boundary conditions under which job hours relate to women’s physical health by integrating the influences of household work hours, perceived unfairness of division of household labor, and traditional gender ideology. Using a large, multi-national archival dataset, our results show that women working long job hours are more likely to report decreased physical health and that this relationship is moderated by the hours and fairness perceptions of household labor: The lowest physical health was observed at high job hours and high household hours and also when women felt that they did less than their fair share of household labor. However, looking at the slopes of these relationships, the negative relationship between job hours and physical health was stronger when women worked lower household hours or felt that they contributed less than their fair share of household labor—suggesting that maintaining a contribution to household labor might be important for working women. Furthermore, these results suggest that policy and organizational interventions aimed at supporting women’s physical health could take their household labor contributions and fairness perceptions into account when assessing the negative impact of high job work hours.     

Crossover between work and home in dyadic partner relationships

This study aimed at providing insight into the processes underlying crossover between "work" and "home" in dyadic partner relationships. Specifically, we examined to what extent husbands' work demands (work load and overtime hours) and psychological health (fatigue and depressive symptoms) "cross over" to their wives' home demands (home load) and psychological health. These associations were investigated among three couple groups, based on wives' working hours (i.e., more than 20 hours per week, from 1 to 20 hours per week, and not engaged in paid work) (253 couples in total). All husbands worked for at least 35 hours a week. Three possible crossover mechanisms were hypothesized: (i) time-based, (ii) strain-based, and (iii) empathy-based crossover. The results partially supported mechanisms (i) and (ii): when husbands reported higher work load (mechanism i) and more psychological health complaints (mechanism ii), their wives experienced higher home load. The results further supported mechanism (iii) that wives' and husbands' psychological health were associated. It is concluded that crossover from husbands to wives may occur through various mechanisms.     

Life satisfaction and identity structure in late middle-aged men and women

A total of 32 retirement-age subjects (17 men and 15 women) provided information about their lives by rating each of their identities in terms of a list of self-generated features. They also rank-ordered their currently enacted identities in terms of time spent in each and completed a life-satisfaction questionnaire. The Identities X Features matrices were analyzed by algorithms that generated a hierarchical model of identity structure for each subject based on feature ratings. The hierarchical levels of identities were combined with time-spent rankings to obtain an index of personal style, a measure that reflected the unique organization of identities for each subject. Personal style indices were then correlated with life-satisfaction scores. Results confirmed the prediction that life satisfaction in this age group is a function of the amount of time spent in identities that give expression to multiple aspects of the self.     

The variability of the delinquent self: Anti-authority attitudes and endorsement of neutralization techniques among incarcerated delinquents in Singapore

This study presents research findings showing that the delinquent social identity is not a fixed entity but varies according to situational factors. Participants were incarcerated Singapore delinquents of both genders, who responded to a vignette of a rule-breaking situation when either their family or their gang social identities are made salient. Another manipulation involves confrontation by authority either in public or in private. Results demonstrate that delinquents' attitude toward authority and their endorsement of the techniques of neutralization vary depending on the salience of their identities and confrontation by authority. This lends support to self-categorization theory's concept of the variable self.     

Hijab,visibility and the performance of identity

Theories concerning the relationship between social identification and behaviour are increasingly attentive to how group members emphasise or de‐emphasise identity‐related attributes before particular audiences. Most research on this issue is experimental and explores the expression of identity‐related attitudes as a function of participants' beliefs concerning their visibility to different audiences. We extend and complement such research with an analysis of group members' accounts of their identity performances. Specifically, we consider British Muslim women's (n = 22) accounts of wearing hijab (a scarf covering the hair) and how this visible declaration of religious identity is implicated in the performance of their religious, national and gender identities. Our analysis extends social psychological thinking on identity performance in three ways. First, it extends our understandings of the motivations for making an identity visible to others. Second, it sheds light on the complex relationship between the performance of one (e.g. Muslim) identity and the performance of other (e.g. gender/national) identities. Third, it suggests the experience of making an identity visible can facilitate the subsequent performance of that identity. The implications of these points for social identity research on identity performance are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The school-to-work transition: A role identity perspective

The current article provides an extension of the conceptual literature on the school-to-work transition (STWT). Specifically, we attempt to integrate this diverse literature by proposing a role identity approach to studying STWTs. Here, we suggest that an individual’s work role identity plays three roles in understanding the outcomes of STWTs: as a direct predictor of STWT success, as a mediator of distal factors on STWT success, and as moderator variable that interacts with other role identities (e.g., family member) in influencing STWT success. The article concludes with directions for future theoretical and empirical research as well as implications for practice.