Chapter 7: Identity and Difference in Organizational Life

How are identity and difference constructed in popular narratives?

Movies, television shows, and books give fictional and nonfictional accounts of organizational experiences that help members make sense of their identities and experiences.

How are identities constructed in relation to organizational communication?

Organizations often serve as sites where individual identities are constructed by a person's position in an organization, his or her relationships to others in an organization, the language used to discuss individuals, and the morals and values that are explicated.

What is the "second shift," and what does it have to do with identity and difference?

The second shift focuses on the work done in the private sphere that individuals do for little compensation or gratitude. The best example is the work that women often do when they get home from a paying job to take care of the home and family. This concept is relevant to gender, identity, and difference because this type of work is often attributed to women.

What does it mean to say that an organization is "gendered"?

This term comes from the work of Joan Acker, who suggests that organizations themselves often carry identity markers that make certain careers and professions more feminine or masculine.

consumption

a cultural practice of purchasing and using cultural artifacts to craft a self

identity regulation

articulating how and in what ways differences among members will be valued

authenticity

being real and honest with how we work and live with others

identity

how individuals position themselves in the world through language and action

stencil

key characteristics: being shaped or "drawn" by powerful, dominant, and disciplining discourses challenges: exposure to disciplinary forms of power (concertive control, hegemony) examples: aging, unemployed workers

storyteller

key characteristics: crafting a relatively coherent personal narrative of the self challenges: attempting to create order and direction in life examples: Caribbean immigrants; narrating "cancerland"

struggler

key characteristics: dealing with contradictions and conflicts between views of the self and external demands challenges: conflicting demands and challenges examples: dignified miners, aboriginal leaders

solider

key characteristics: embracing attractive social categories for social and organizational identification challenges: pressure and the desire to subordinate oneself to a greater whole; affiliation with a group examples: firefigher

strategist

key characteristics: producing a synthesis between individual "authenticity" and organizational adaptation challenges: being true to self vs. wholeheartedly adopting an organizational image examples: Indian call center employees, Jamaican leaders

surfer

key characteristics: responding to a complex world of multiple discourses by creating fragmented and fluid identities challenges: multiple discourses (work, family, culture) pushing individuals between different identities examples: gay-straight friendships at work, female leaders in tech groups

self-doubter

key characteristics: trying to cope with insecurity and uncertainty. challenge: multiple social relationships, ontological insecurities examples: potential corporate leaders

identity work

the process of negotiating the identities that have been (largly) defined by organizational discourses

personal brand

the value-added commodity that one becomes through the consumption of products, services, knowledge, and so on