Identity work

Abstract

As argued in Chapter 8, the mainstream agenda in OB can be shown to refer to common and basic processes through which individuals develop identities. Through these processes, notably learning, perception and socialisation, the individual is seen to develop a distinctive personality and patterns of motivation. There are many useful things to learn from examining that journey, but as an account of the development of subjectivity and identity within an organisational context, it has distinct limitations. It fails adequately to understand individual identity as a social reality through which we transact with our environment. Hence we deal with objective reality through a subjective construction which interprets and shapes our whole world in terms of what we value about ourselves. Our focus on subjective identity lies in this process, because as individuals we guide our actions according to what will in our view best defend, enhance or substantiate our identities. As Knights and Willmott (1985) argued, each of us is effectively engaged in securing for ourselves identities which provide both a sense of personal stability and a basis for directing our activity. Identity in this light is a tool which we use to present ourselves in — and possibly transform ourselves into — images appropriate to our social, cultural and work context.

Social organization is both means and bar to control. The concrete physical and biological settings in which actions occur are crucial. It is thus the outcomes and contentions among identities which is what cumulates into social organisation. (Harrison, 1992: 16)