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Work, Meaning, and Multiple Identities

Work, Meaning, and Multiple Identities. Framing. Growing interest around the inter-relationships among identity / identification, meaning, and work Understanding how we make it all work: multiple roles, multiple identities, multiple meanings

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Work, Meaning, and Multiple Identities

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  1. Work, Meaning, and Multiple Identities

  2. Framing • Growing interest around the inter-relationships among identity / identification, meaning, and work • Understanding how we make it all work: multiple roles, multiple identities, multiple meanings • Designing new study with several colleagues at U of Illinois (such as Teresa) – want general and specific feedback

  3. Goals • To examine how organizational practices, individual differences in work orientation, and organizational affiliation contribute to distinct types of identification. • To examine the effect of these distinct types of identification (4) on organizational outcomes.

  4. Model: The “Big Picture” • Organizational • Practices • work • social context • Experienced • Meaningfulness • in working • at work Patterns of Identification Professional Identification Low High • Work Orientation • job • career (A) & (B) • calling Organizational Commitment Professional Identifier Non- identified Low Organizational Identification Org. Citizenship Behaviors Org. Identifier Dual Identifier High • Affiliation • proximity • temporal factors • administrative control • social linkages Job Satisfaction

  5. Proposed Context • Medical context (2 health care systems – 1 religiously affiliated) • Numerous professional groups • Different backgrounds, training, certification, status orientation, job perceptions, ideologies • Different levels of identification with profession and organization

  6. Identification Patterns • Organizational & Professional • Assume that Identification is not “fixed pie” (can simultaneously identify with numerous targets) • Professional identifiers (e.g., cosmopolitans) • Organizational identifiers (e.g., locals) • Non-identifiers (within workplace) • Dual identifiers

  7. Organizational Practices • Work: changing what members do, changing the nature of the job tasks • meaningfulness in working • stronger link to professional identification? • Social Context: changing various aspects of the social context (e.g., culture, work relationships) • meaningfulness at work • stronger link to organizational identification?

  8. Work Orientation • Job: economic focus • predictive of ‘Non-Identifiers’? • Career A: achievement focus – advancement within an organization • predictive of ‘Organization Identifiers’? • Career B: achievement focus – advancement across organizations • predictive of ‘Professional Identifiers?’ • Calling: fulfillment, transcendence • predictive of ‘Dual Identifiers’ or ‘Professional Identifiers’?

  9. Affiliation Adapted from Pfeffer and Baron (1988)

  10. Affiliation • Still working on specific hypotheses for affiliation • In general, we believe that lack of proximity, and working alone will have a larger influence on organizational identification than professional identification

  11. Experienced Meaningfulness Want to assess: meaningfulness in working meaningfulness at work No “set measures” that we know of – likely be the focus of qualitative analysis Need to determine whether or not to “split” different aspects of meaningfulness at work (e.g., ‘culture’ and ‘relationships’)

  12. Organizational Commitment • Might different types of commitment be related to different identification patterns (and work orientations)? • Continuance – non-identifiers (and job-oriented)? • Affective – organizational and dual (and career A)? • Normative – professional and dual (and career B and calling)?

  13. Other Outcomes • OCB’s: e.g., task conscientiousness, helping others, participating in organizational politics, positive attitudes • Job Satisfaction

  14. Need Specific Feedback About… • Career A and B • Does this distinction make sense • Will we get differences between career B and callings? • “Non-traditional” outcome variables • Can we do more than OCBs and job satisfaction? • Logic of predictions? • Missing aspects of affiliation? • Capturing meaningfulness in and at work? • Look for “transcendent” practices?

  15. Thank you!

  16. Meaningfulness in and at Work(Pratt & Ashforth 2003) Meaningfulness inWorking Practices Meaningfulness atWork Practices Membership: Where Do I Belong? Role: What Am I Doing? Identity: Who Am I? Meaningfulness:Why Am I Here?

  17. Organizational Practices Meaning at Work Meaning in Working Job redesign Building cultures, identities, ideologies Employee involvement Transformational, charismatic or visionary leadership Recruitment Path-goal leadership Selection Socialization Building communities Nurturing callings Providing a cosmology Promoting psychological safety Enacting with integrity Transcendence

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