Identity at Work (I)
A-Z Series at Psychology@Work
What is Identity?
Identity is a word used to broadly describe one's self-concept. Identity has multiple layers and dimensions that define who you are to yourself and how you announce yourself to the external world. Identity evolves from a sense of continuity – where you develop a sense of self and believe that the core self carries over from one day to another even when there are physical and other changes around you. When we act in ways that are consistent with our identity, we feel authentic and true.
Identity is as much about the past as it is about aspirations for the future!
Your identity is the story you tell yourself and the world where you outline a central and enduring character. Identity is a consistent narrative you have woven when you look at everything you have been till today. Your memories, experiences, relationships, goals, expectations, values, political opinions, moral attitudes and religious beliefs are all ingredients used to define your identity. In many ways, your identity is a retrospective narrative about your existence- where you search for the consistent and enduring commonalities in how you have thought, felt, and lived till now. Over time, when certain beliefs, values and attitudes are more prevalent in your lived experience – you start to see them as an enduring and core part of your identity.
At the same time, your identity is also the story you want to tell about yourself in the future. Your identity is influenced by what you want to be, as it then acts as a guide telling you what you should do, think, and feel about yourself and the external world. Identities are tweaked by us over time, not only based on our lived experience but also on facets that we want to incorporate into our definition of self.
The need to have an identity
We are not born with an identity. Instead, we are born with a need to create an identity. As we grow up, we test our identity features by trying out different experiences and confirming what we like and dislike while also revising what we thought we liked and disliked earlier. Even my young daughter has this need to define herself. She has spent seven years on this planet and already has a strong sense of self. She uses many descriptive statements to define who she is! For example, she says, "I am an artist, mamma. But I am also a dancer and an animal lover who likes to be kind". Her statements might sound cute and a bit weird to us, but the labels she uses to define herself is what is her identity. The label of being an "artist", "dancer", "animal lover", and "kind" is how she views herself and how she announces herself to the outside world. It is how she wants to be known to her friends and family. Given that I know some of her close friends, it is apparent that some of those labels make her different from them, and some of those labels make her similar to her friends.
Identity development is a balance between normality and uniqueness: As humans, we define ourselves because we have a need to hold and project a positive self-image. We also have a need to be optimally distinct and unique while still being societally appropriate. We articulate our identity to self-enhance our image and belong to groups and attract acceptance from society.
Identity is not always created consciously!
Our identity is not only shaped by our own storytelling. But, it is also shaped by forces outside of our immediate control and forces that we are often less conscious about. For example, we absorb what the culture and society around us deem as appropriate. Identity comes into being through tweaking to adjust to those around you and the automatic process of absorbing the normative labels. For example, the nature of our early relationships with caregivers shapes what we believe are qualities worth including in our identity. The cultural norms passed down from people in authority and positions of respect (e.g. teacher, educators etc.) define worthy values and goals. Over time, we also experiment with different behaviours and assess whether we like or dislike them. Based on these experimentations, we come to define ourselves. Many a time, the external forces that have shaped our identity remain hidden from our own self-awareness. These cultural and socialized norms become such a core part of our thinking that we never stop examining the assumptions underlying our own likes and dislikes.
Now that we understand what is an identity, so how does it play out at work?
We have multiple identities: Though our sense of self has some core and enduring features, we also have various identities that are more or less aligned to the different roles we play in life. Our identity as a daughter, mother, father, friend, partner and employee may differ in some ways while they have some common elements.
Work identity is one aspect of an individual's multiple identities. The way we define ourselves at work is shaped both by our own recollection of how we have worked in the past, our aspirations of the type of careers we seek, and external forces such as how the occupation/profession defines worthy qualities.
Research shows that our work identity influences our behaviours and feelings towards our job and the organization and can predict the level of loyalty, commitment and supportive behaviours we engage in to achieve organizational goals.
Like other identities, identity can work unconsciously, or we can actively mobilize our identity at work. For example, my work identity that is most salient to me every day at work could consist of any one or a combination of the following identity labels: a "teacher", a "researcher", a "curious learner", and/or a "disseminator of knowledge for impact".
What drives the salience of a particular identity at work?
Research says that our identity salience is influenced by several factors which determine whether a specific aspect of our identity becomes mobilized at work:
1. Belongingness to a social group: At work, we have a need to belong to the larger group – such that we are admired, liked, respected among those we consider to be competent and successful. Each of us derives pride and self-confidence when accepted as part of the social group by those we believe to be high status and admirable. This source of identity is also visible in how we define ourselves in terms of our nationality, religion, race, gender and other types of social classification. In a sense, to belong to a social group, we need to first categorize those around us into groups based on some commonalities. This very process of categorizing our colleagues, leaders, and role models into groups allows us to choose which group we hope to belong to (in-group) and which group we want to differentiate ourselves from (out-group). This need to have an in-group and out-group to define ourselves – has been a central character of humans throughout history.
An Example: For example, at my work, I have heard many people define themselves and their identity as a "researcher" such that their academic/university professor work definitions of self are far more closely aligned with the tasks of conducting scientific research, examining questions through rigorous data collection and solving problems by identifying evidence. Such individuals often differentiate themselves from others they believe have an academic identity as a "teacher" – who believes their role is to disseminate knowledge, improve student learning, enable change in mindsets and impact the next generation of thinkers and doers in society. The way you define your work identity as a researcher or a teacher will impact how you spend time at work. Whether you see value in engaging with students versus engaging with the research literature. In my line of work, you can also identify as both a researcher and a teacher in terms of your identity as an academic. In that case, you will find yourself valuing both and at times facing identity conflict when one avenue takes away from the pursuit of others.
Through these examples, I want to convey to you that our work identity is something that can fundamentally influence how we spend time at work, what goals we pursue, how passionate we are about those goals and how we value the meaning the significance of other tasks that are not directly linked to our core identity. Our work identity is also aspirational. It is more aligned to what we categorize as our "in-group" such that the in-group norms and expectations of some social groups have a larger effect on our definition of identity than that of other groups of other groups individuals we consider in the out-group.
2) Need to fit in but also uniquely stand out: I just argued that our identities at work are shaped by our work role models and norms of social groups we would like to belong to. And, thus we seek to emulate those definitions and behaviours and minimize stark differences such that we are appreciated, included and accepted by our chosen social group. However, psychology also tells us that we do not want to "Fit-In" perfectly – that we also have a need to see ourselves as unique and distinct from others. Thus in our definition of our work identity – we have elements that make us feel "rebelling" and "standing out" from the herd. These rebellious elements of our identity are often idiosyncratic and proportionally more minor compared to the "fitting-in" commonalities with the in-group. Yet, these few elements have a salient effect on us at work and how we go about our everyday tasks.
Work identity and its impact on our mind and behaviour: On the whole, research supports that when an employee identifies with their occupation, industry, role or profession, they are more committed and work hard towards goals. So, in short, it is a good thing for employees to deeply identify with the social groups at work such as their occupational groups (e.g. supply chain practitioner), industry (e.g. Health Care), role (e.g. manager) etc. But, more recently, there is research looking at the problems with over-identification at work.
Over-identification at work
Recent research has looked at how over-identification with work can have negative impacts. Identification is a process of associating the self closely with other individuals or a profession. Remember, we discussed earlier how identity comes to form as we experiment and tweak our own understanding of what we like and dislike but also how we come to absorb the norms and goals of who we categorize as our in-group. Over time, there is an increase in the phenomenon where individuals in modern times have started to define their entire concept of self in terms of their work identity. That is, the work identity is so strong that it takes over the multiple other identities in life.
For example, if you find that your self-esteem, sense of pride in yourself, your status and respect in the eyes of others are all closely linked to how you are doing at work – you will find that your identification with your job or profession will become the salient identity in your life. When all your multiple identities in life come to become absorbed under the umbrella of your work identity, you may find yourself over-investing in one identity such that there are signs of burnout, anxiety, depression and strain in relationships with friends/loved ones who do not value that professional identity.
This week, I hope I have given you a sense of what is identity and what factors influence the ways in which we come to form identities in life and at work. This is a rather complex topic, and in the coming weeks, I hope to address different aspects of identity by looking at identity confusion, identity conflict, identity change. I hope you enjoyed reading this.