Professional identity work types in organizational change
Abstract: This paper investigates identity work types by professionals in organizational change. Type refers to a particular way of identity work that derives from how the individual perceives the change in respect to the self and what implications this has to identity processes. The unique type has implications to the behaviour, values and attitude of the professional, and then, organizational performance. Both academia and practice have increasingly turned to identity work to understanding organizational change. Although the benefits of acknowledging differences between professionals' identity work have been established, current literature does not offer means to adequately explore identity work types. In order to contribute, an abductive and qualitative study situated in a particular case context was conducted. The investigation was conducted in a phenomenographic manner to understand professionals' mental landscape during the change, based on which the types could be distinguished. The data suggests three prevalent identity work types, which differ in how the individual had mentally positioned the self in respect to the change. This was found to have implications to the individual behaviour, attitude, and priorities during the change. In order to distinguish between the identity work types and to contribute to academia and practice, a framework is proposed.
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