Publications

Research Summary

Managing Multiple Identities at Work

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan

Peoples’ work identities, which are often a deep source of meaning for them, may conflict with or complement cultural, familial, or personal identities they value. A central focus of Professor Ramarajan’s work is understanding, on the individual level, how these... View Details

Article

Dismantling Knowledge Boundaries at NASA: The Critical Role of Professional Identity in Open Innovation

By: Hila Lifshitz - Assaf

Using a longitudinal in-depth field study at NASA, I investigate how the open, or peer-production, innovation model affects R&D professionals, their work, and the locus of innovation. R&D professionals are known for keeping their knowledge work within clearly defined... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Knowledge Boundaries; Boundary Work; Professional Identity; Open Innovation; Identity Work; Technological Change; Nasa; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge; Science; Technology; Engineering; Change; Aerospace Industry; North and Central America

2009
Chapter

Checking Your Identities at the Door? Positive Relationships Between Non-Work and Work Identities

By: Nancy Rothbard and Lakshmi Ramarajan

In this chapter we examine factors that enable individuals to experience compatibility between their work and non-work identities. Specifically, we suggest that identity compatibility is influenced by (a) the extent to which individuals can control the co-activation of... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Identity; Adaptation

March 2013
Module Note

Leading by Leveraging Workers' Occupational Identities

By: Michel Anteby

This note helps instructors teach about the role of occupational identities in driving efforts and action. It ties together several cases and an exercise that can be taught in leadership/organizational behavior/human resources classes. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Work; Occupations; Leadership; Identity; Jobs and Positions

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Research Summary

IDENTITY

In his work on identity, Professor Malter investigates when and why high-status affiliations make organizations and individuals less appealing to their audiences. In a study of the venture capital industry, he finds that a venture capital firm is less likely to... View Details

September 2012
Article

The Unwanted Self: Projective Identification in Leaders' Identity Work

By: Gianpiero Petriglieri and Mark Stein

This paper employs a psychodynamic perspective to examine the development and maintenance of a leader's identity, building on the premise that such identity work involves both conscious and unconscious processes. We focus on the latter by suggesting that those in... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Identity

SSRN

October 2013
Article

Shattering the Myth of Separate Worlds: Negotiating Non-Work Identities at Work

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan and Erin M. Reid

How much of our self is defined by our work? Fundamental changes in the social organization of work are destabilizing the relationship between work and the self. As a result, parts of the self traditionally considered outside the domain of work, i.e., "non-work"... View Details

Keywords: Identity; Diversity; Strategy; Jobs and Positions; Work-Life Balance

2014
Article

In Search of the Self at Work: Young Adults' Experiences of a Dual Identity Organization

By: Michel Anteby and Amy Wrzesniewski

Purpose: Multiple forces that shape the identities of adolescents and young adults also influence their subsequent career choices. Early work experiences are key among these forces. Recognizing this, youth service programs have emerged worldwide with the hope of... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Identity; Socialization; Youth; Youth Service Programs; Identity; Mission and Purpose; Age; Personal Development and Career; Service Industry; Europe

09 Jun 2016
Cold Call Podcast

Hold on to Your Complexity: Bringing Multiple Identities to Work

Keywords: Re: Lakshmi Ramarajan; Financial Services

Article

The Power in Demography: Women's Social Constructions of Gender Identity at Work

By: R. J. Ely

This study examined how women's proportional representation in the upper echelons of organizations affects professional women's social constructions of gender difference and gender identity at work. Qualitative and quantitative data were used. Results suggest that sex... View Details

Keywords: Demographics; Gender; Labor

Purchase

2008
Chapter

Identity Negotiation Processes Amidst Diversity: Understanding the Influence of Social Identity and Status Differences

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Heather M. Caruso

We integrate an identity negotiation framework with research on diversity, social identity theory, and status differences. This integration reveals the distinct advantages and challenges that high and low status people face when they engage in identity negotiation... View Details

Keywords: Status and Position; Prejudice and Bias; Groups and Teams; Organizational Culture; Identity; Diversity; Power and Influence

13 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

Managing the Support Staff Identity Crisis

story about identity," Gulati says. "Ultimately we all have a sense of work identity. We talked about it in terms of DNA, but it's really about helping people redefine their identity in a broader,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

December 2011
Article

Identity Work in Business Schools: From Don Quixote, to Dons and Divas

By: Rakesh Khurana and Scott A. Snook

Keywords: Identity; Business Education

Purchase

1995
Chapter

The Role of Dominant Identity and Experience in Organizational Work on Diversity

By: R. J. Ely

Keywords: Working Conditions; Identity; Experience and Expertise; Diversity

September–October 2013
Article

Changes in Work, Changes in Self? Managing Our Work and Non-Work Identities in an Integrated World

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan and Erin M. Reid

Diverse workplaces are challenging the boundaries between workers' personal and professional lives, as workers today navigate employer pressures regarding who they are and who they can be outside of work. Lakshmi Ramarajan and Erin M. Reid consider how the attunement... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Identity; Boundaries; Power and Influence; Performance Effectiveness; Organizational Change and Adaptation

24 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Career Advice for Minorities and Women: Sharing Your Identity Can Open Doors

identity out there, it appears to activate different things psychologically in people’s minds than when people infer your identity from your name.” "They're thinking ... 'If I care about not being... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

Research Summary

Reinventing Yourself: Identity and Transformation in Professional Careers

Professor Herminia Ibarra is working on a book about people who change careers. The book explains why, when, and how people find themselves at a crossroads in their career and how they develp the skills they need to make their way successfully to a new professional... View Details

Research Summary

Dissertation: Is the Ideal Worker Still Real? Sources and Consequences of Men's Professional Identities

My dissertation examines the implications of men's changing lives for their work identities and for gender inequality in organizations. Current theories of workplace gender inequality hinge upon the widely-shared cultural image of an "ideal worker,"... View Details

June 2024
Article

Defining Who You Are by Whom You Serve? Strategies for Prosocial–Professional Identity Integration with Clients

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan and Julie Yen

Many professionals want to both achieve professional success and contribute to society. Yet, in some professional contexts, these aims are in tension because serving elite clients is considered the pinnacle of professional success, but professionals themselves may view... View Details

Keywords: Identity; Experience and Expertise; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Behavior; Social Entrepreneurship