The re-regulation of working communities and relationships in the context of flexwork: A spacing identity approach

Existing studies on flexwork stress its individualizing inclination by showing how it gives autonomy to employees, boosts individual productivity, or supports personal well-being at the expense of group cohesiveness, social ties and other characteristics of the “collective” in organizations. Obviously, flexwork both continues and contributes to an individualization process of working activities and relationships. But, how exactly does flexwork re-regulate working relationships and communities? Is the “collective” irremediably damaged and doomed to disappear? Building on a case study conducted in an insurance company having implemented flexwork, we observe invisibilized employees working from diverse premises (e.g., home, office, etc.) initiating alternative ways of staying united and close. This article shows the re-regulation of these working relationships and communities' through a collective identity process involving de/re-spacing identity; i.e., the spatial and material aspects of flexible work in relation to identity.     

A new look at an old problem: A positive psychology lens on discrimination – identity builders and work-related outcomes

Although many scholars and practitioners continue to emphasize the benefits of a diverse workforce, discrimination remains an impediment to diversity and inclusion. For African Americans, who are uniquely stigmatized in the United States as descendants of enslaved people, merely having a “black name” or Afro-centric hairstyle can result in employment discrimination. Despite these outcomes, many African Americans remain resilient while facing discrimination. Utilizing positive organizational scholarship and the positive work-related identity typology as a framework, we propose a conceptual model that examines how African Americans' experiences enable them to shape a positive identity and serve as protective buffers against discrimination. Importantly, we suggest this identity process empowers African Americans to overcome discrimination, still perform well, and not voluntarily quit. We conclude with a discussion of our model's impact on African Americans and other stigmatized minorities and suggestions for future human resource management research and practice.     

'Citibankers' at Citigroup: A Study of the Loss of Institutional Trust after a Merger

abstract    In this paper, we present the results of a study of the loss of institutional trust following a merger. Specifically, we focus on how issues of organizational identity and identification processes contributed to the loss of institutional trust among a group of employees of Citigroup after its creation through the merger of Citicorp and Travelers. Our study makes two important contributions. First, we propose and demonstrate empirically that institutional trust, like interpersonal trust, can be identity-based. Second, adopting a narrative approach to organizational identity, we explore institutional trust in a post-merger context, highlighting how institutional trust is initially undermined after a merger by the ambiguity of the new organization's identity; and how later, once the identity of the new organization becomes less ambiguous, institutional trust can continue to be undermined by the absence of employees' identification with the new organization, especially among those who were highly-identified with their legacy organizations.     

Motivation for alumni donations: a social identity perspective on the role of branding in higher education

• As a result of decreasing government funds and increasing competition, institutions of higher education have propelled themselves into business practices such as branding. Despite the growing literature on branding in higher education, there is little research on the relationship between alumni donor motivations and the university brand. This study explores donor motivations from social identity and self‐congruity theoretical perspectives. The authors used zero‐inflated negative binomial regression to assess the relationship between identification and count of donations. The results showed that if the level of identification with the university increased, the expected number of donations would also increase. The study further assessing the “zeros” (non‐donors), the results suggested that if an alumnus were to identify with the university, he would be 43% less likely to be “certain zero” (definitive non‐donor) and would find a way to give money. Additionally, the authors analyzed responses about why alumni donate and why they choose not to donate. The authors offered observations on the basis of respondent commentary and also raised the question of what happens when university branding efforts conflict with the perceptions of a large stakeholder group such as alumni.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crowdworkers,social affirmation and work identity: Rethinking dominant assumptions of crowdwork

Crowdwork is becoming increasingly popular as evidenced by its rapid growth. It is a new way of working that is conducted through global digital platforms where money is exchanged for services provided online. As it is digitally grounded, it has been assumed to be context-free, uniform and consisting of a simple exchange of tasks/labour from a global workforce for direct monetary pay. In this study, we examine these dominant, largely Western assumptions from crowdworkers' perspective and turn to a non-Western context to destabilise them. We adopt an inductive research approach using multiple sources of qualitative data including interviews, participant observations, documents review, observation of social media chat rooms and online forums. The study reveals that as they lack organisational, occupational and professional context and referent, crowdworkers rely on social affirmation in the construction of their work identity. They construct a work identity of who they are that cuts across the boundaries between themselves, the digital work they do and their social environment. This constructed work identity then frames how they do crowdwork and their relationships with digital platforms and employers. This study advances theories about crowdwork contesting the dominant assumptions and showing that it is not context free, neither it is a simple exchange of labour. Further, it shows that the construction of a crowdwork identity in context plays a significant role in shaping the way this digitally-grounded work is conducted and managed.     

Organizational sustainability identity: Constructing oneself as sustainable

In the literature, organizational sustainability identity tends to be treated as something that is ‘engineered’ within business organizations through control, reporting, target setting, strategic communication, and other instruments. Through a case study of a company mainly active within the recycling industry, an alternative understanding is given. A distinct organizational sustainability identity is, rather, a social construct based on perceptions of the core operations as “sustainable in themselves” and collaborative work with customers that is perceived as entailing sustainable solutions. Understood in this way, organizational sustainability identity has relatively little to do with formal controls such as codes, policies, reports used by management to position the company as sustainable. Rather, for organizational members, the process of constructing oneself as sustainable builds on convictions about the core operations and the possession of specific capabilities manifested in customer relations. The article adds to current literature through its constructivistic approach and through identifying underlying beliefs that condition the process of forming an organizational sustainability identity.     

“I have to go the extra mile”. How fat female employees manage their stigmatized identity at work

This study explores how fat female employees engage in identity work to manage stigmatizing expectations grounded in healthism and obesity discourse that construct fat people as unhealthy, stupid, unprofessional, and lazy. We interviewed 22 women who self-identified as fat, full-figured or obese. Our analysis reveals how our participants engaged in identity work strategies in order to project a professional appearance and highlight their work performances. Many strategies reproduced dominant notions about fatness such as ‘smartening up’, ‘distracting’, ‘hiding’, ‘concealing’, ‘humour’, ‘compensating’, ‘explaining’ and ‘defensive Othering’. Yet at times some participants also used strategies that challenged dominant discourses about size, such as ‘flaunting’, ‘irony’ and ‘self-acceptance’. The identity work strategies our participants engaged in were not just narrative; many involved what they did with their bodies. We therefore argue the need for further theorizing embodied identity work, specifically with regards to how size matters in the context of employment.     

“When I go my family will see my life in programmes”: Legacy giving and identity at the Royal Opera House

With £5.5 trillion due to be transferred between generations over forthcoming decades in the UK alone, non-profits stand to increase their income from legacy giving significantly, if they can make lasting and meaningful connections with donors. Extant research suggests that autobiographical memory may play a key role in this process. In this article, we go beyond considering autobiographical memory in general to examining how connection with a particular non-profit, and the memories that are generated can shape individual identity. We report the results of twenty life-history interviews with people who plan to leave a legacy to the Royal Opera House, and discuss how identity is created through a connection with opera and/or ballet in general and the Royal Opera House in particular. We then go on to explore how the strength of that connection and development of a shared identity can create a sense of symbolic immortality and influence the legacy giving decision, drawing on peak memorable experiences and nostalgia as a social emotion that connects people to what they love. We conclude by reflecting on how other non-profits might create or stimulate such identities.     

Interactive identity work of professionals in management: a hospital case study

ABSTRACT

Hybrid professional managers appear less effective in introducing management into public professional settings than policymakers hope. To date, research has offered little understanding of professionals’ identity transition challenge and the role of social interactions underpinning this process. We studied the identity work of hybrid doctors inside a large public health-care organization, finding that it takes place through processes of familiarizing with management, rationalizing being a hybrid, and legitimizing the new role-identity. We contribute to the literature by showing that identity work is distributed and enabled by social interactions beyond the professional group. Implications for policymakers and executives are discussed.     

Process-based vs. product-based innovation: Value creation by nanotech ventures

Nanotechnology is frequently heralded as the next wave of technological advance, poised to enable radical innovation across many industries. But as yet little is known about how firms will ultimately create that value. We do know that nanotechnology is based on process innovation, a category of innovation less well understood than product innovation. And we know that new ventures are an important vehicle for commercializing radical technology. As new ventures seek to commercialize nanotechnology, they evolve value creation strategies to better link fundamental scientific advance with the creation of value for users and investors. This paper asks “How do the successful value creation strategies of technology ventures differ in process vs. product-based innovation?”An investigation of 12 ventures representing the extremes of value creation through process-based (nanotech) and product-based (fuel cell) innovation reveals significant differences in their value creation challenges, in the mechanisms of technology–market matching and alliance building, and in their levels of experimentation. Ventures exploiting process innovation faced greater uncertainty in their value chain positioning, market breadth, customization, and the changes required of their customers in contrast to product-based ventures. Our evidence shows that nanotechnology ventures benefit from prioritizing technology–market matching, alliance building and experimenting with technologies in new value networks.     

Experiencing a New Place as an Atmosphere: A Focus on Tours of Collaborative Spaces

In this article, we ethnographically explore how tour guides convey different embodied experiences of space and place during tours of collaborative spaces. These tours draw on participants’ embodied experience and emotions in order to reveal the invisible dimensions of everyday activities of collaborative spaces, in particular their different organizational atmospheres. By systematically coding 110 tours of such spaces, we identify four emotional registers – “initiation,” “commodification,” “selection,” and “gamification,” which are used by tour guides to produce a particular atmosphere. We feel that the concept of “atmosphere” is a powerful means of exploring the unbounded and fluid spatiality, the quasi-materiality, and the temporality of the work practices that individuals are likely to experience if they become members of these collaborative spaces. We conclude our analyses by considering the implications of this study for the management of collaborative spaces and new work practices more generally.     

Mediating ambiguity: Narrative identity and knowledge workers

Drawing on Paul Ricoeur's approach to narrative identity and a longitudinal case study of a graphic design firm, this paper explores identity work provoked by organisational changes for one group of knowledge workers, graphic designers. The approach to identity work developed in this paper illuminates how these knowledge workers use narrative to mediate between social and personal identities during a period of significant organisational change. The narrative identity approach, derived from Ricoeur, embraces the multiplicity, complexity and potential contradictions encountered by knowledge workers facing threats to their personal identity. In addition to developing Ricoeur's thinking to understand identity work in an organisational context, the impact of organisational change for knowledge workers is highlighted for practitioners.     

From boundary line to boundary space: The creation of hybrid organizations as a Triple Helix micro-foundation

In a Triple Helix framework, independent hybrid organizations can be created at the intersection of overlapping yet separate institutional spheres to address innovation blockages. However, the formation process of these organizations, which incorporate and combine elements from the Triple Helix spheres, has seldom been investigated. We address this gap by proposing a model that conceptualizes the creation process of these organizations. We argue that their creation opens up a “boundary space” that differs from a boundary line. By comparing empirical results of three cases, we identify a three-step creation process (recognizing a gap; bringing Triple Helix representatives together and creating a consensus; and designing an ad hoc contingent solution). We highlight the individual role of a boundary spanner in these dynamics. The results provide new insights on the micro-foundations of the Triple Helix. They also suggest an extension of the “boundary spanner” concept.     

Talent or Not? Employee Reactions to Talent Identification

In this article, we examine the effect of talent identification on employee attitudes. Building on social exchange theory, we analyze the association between employees' perceptions about whether or not they have been formally identified as “talent” and the following attitudinal outcomes: commitment to increasing performance demands, building skills, and supporting strategic priorities; identification with the unit and the multinational enterprise; and turnover intentions. Our analyses of 769 managers and professionals in nine Nordic multinational corporations reveal a number of differences between employees who perceive that they have been identified as “talent” and those who either perceive that they have not been identified or do not know whether they have been identified. We found only limited differences between the two latter categories.     

Spacing identity: Unfolding social and spatial-material entanglements of identity performance

In this paper, we analyze how architectural design, and the spatial and material changes this involves, contributes to the continuous shaping of identities in an organization. Based upon a case study of organizational and architectural change in a municipal administration at a time of major public sector reforms, we examine how design interventions were used to (re)form work and professional relationships. The paper examines how engagements with spatial arrangements and material artifacts affected people’s sense of both occupational and organizational identity. Taking a relational approach to sociomateriality, the paper contributes to the further theorizing of space in organization studies by proposing the concept of spacing identity to capture the fluidity of identity performance.     

How social enterprises manage their organizational identification: a theoretical framework of identity management approach through attraction,selection, and socialization

Abstract

Social enterprises, as a typical type of hybrid-identity organization, face identification tensions among members, arising from the divergent identities. Prior research has focused on how hybrid identities can be managed at the organizational level. However, the process through which identification emerges in hybrid-identity social enterprises remains relatively unexplored. This study addresses these gaps and aims to contribute to identity and identification theory. This research has taken a qualitative (case study) approach, with in-depth interviews and archival data from nine social enterprises in Taiwan. Our findings reveal three different types of responses to hybrid identities of social enterprises: synthesis, integration, and deletion. It is observed that different hybrid identities management and organizational identification management practices will lead to members’ identification and dis-identification. This research proposes an attraction-selection-socialization model, suggesting that, to foster identification, social enterprises need to manage their hybrid organizational identities and embed the new common identity into members’ daily work through attraction, selection, and socialization processes.     

传统产业集群企业区域价值链市场势力塑造路径

本文对传统产业集群企业如何塑造区域价值链(RVC)市场势力的路径和方法进行研究,以中国南珠产业集群企业为案例,归纳、总结出传统产业集群企业在RVC市场势力塑造过程中的企业家才能和战略定位、文化认同的具体特征,析取概念并建立了“企业家才能”和“文化认同”双重作用的RVC市场势力塑造和突破攻略的理论框架。研究发现,企业家才能通过战略定位实现对传统产业集群企业的RVC市场势力塑造,通过文化认同实现对市场的控制,而在此过程中技术和市场双重控制是常规手段。在数字化条件下,利用数字手段和社会资本,与全球市场建立联结也是传统产业集群企业的一大特色。“企业家才能”和“文化认同”策略是传统产业集群企业获取RVC市场势力并成功充当国际主导企业的关键因素,发展中国家的企业可立足以文化认同为基础的RVC市场势力塑造与传递机制来驱动价值链延伸。     

Intelligent technology,intelligent workers: A new pedagogy for the high-tech work place

When the focus of technology is on automation, it may be reasonable to have training programs that merely teach workers the objects and actions necessary for them to respond to smart machines. However, as the OTA report clearly points out, “There is uncertainty about how current instructional programs should be revised or expanded. …” This uncertainty comes from the informating function of the technology. As one manager said: “Our competition can buy the same black boxes that we can. Our future depends on how well our people use the information generated by that technology.”When the informating quality of the technology is recognized, the importance of smart people becomes apparent. Traditional training, with its focus on objects and actions, is not enough. In the informated environment, on-line, interactive learning is necessary if people are to create new meanings out of the information generated by computer technology.A pedagogy for meaning is a collective enterprise that can unleash individual and organizational energy in an informated work place. It has implications for (1) rethinking traditional worker-training and management-education programs, (2) transforming the work place into a learning environment, (3) reconceptualizing the roles of workers and managers so that they can become partners in creating meaning, and (4) designing rewards for people who create and participate in an environment of inquiry.A pedagogy for meaning is concerned with peoples learning how to learn. A work force that has learned how to learn is one of the most important competitive levers an organization can have in an environment of ongoing technological change.     

Average treatment effects for stayers with correlated random coefficient models of panel data

Correlated random coefficient (CRC) models provide a useful framework for estimating average treatment effects (ATE) with panel data by accommodating heterogeneous treatment effects and flexible patterns of selection. In their simplest form, they lead to the well-known difference-in-differences estimator. CRC models yield estimates of ATE for “movers” (i.e., cross-sectional units whose treatment status changed over time) while ATE for “stayers” (i.e., cross-sectional units who retained the same treatment status over time) are not identified. We study additional restrictions on selection into treatment that lead to the identification of ATE for stayers by an extrapolation from quantities identified by the CRC model. We discuss estimation and testing of the extrapolation's validity, then use our results to estimate the returns to agricultural technology adoption among maize farmers in Kenya.