Mats Alvesson

Professor

Organizational Psychology: When, Why, and How Is Identity Work (Less) Important in Organizational Life?

Författare

Stefan Sveningsson
Susann Gjerde
Mats Alvesson

Redaktör

Michael Bamberg
Carolin Demuth
Meike Watzlawik

Summary, in Swedish

Identity is often viewed as one of the most important concepts to help understand life in contemporary organizations among organizational scholars. For example, studies of identity among organizational members in roles such as e.g. manager, professional, consultant, and priest have provided valuable insights around managerial and professional work, motivation, change, leadership, control, and gender. While drawing on many of these studies, this chapter offers a somewhat contrasting view. We examine if identity is as important as is often claimed, and as a consequence, when and why concerns of identity are triggered in working life, and we do so through a constructionist identity perspective. In the chapter, we argue that many people do not necessarily engage with their identities most of the time and explore why they do in certain kinds of jobs and in particular situations while in others identity is neither present nor salient, at least not as a major issue. The chapter aims to cut down the identity concept in size and suggests that a more focused view on identity may help us come to better grips with what on one level is of great societal concern: identity-related struggle, tension, and confusion in people’s working lives; without adding too much to another concern: a (re)production of unwanted narcissism in our already narcissistic time of age.

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