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Management Wk 9 - Coggle Diagram
Management Wk 9
How do employees cope with conflicting professional identities
Congruence versus conflict
If an employee's expected and experienced professional identities are in sync and congruent, they are unlikely to experience conflict
In reality a large percentage of professionals experience conflict between the two identities. This speaks to the fact that people experience ongoing tension surrounding how they expect themselves to work, how much they expect to get out of themselves in their daily tasks, versus how much they perceive their superiors expected them
historically, researchers and practitioners focused on women, especially those with young children as being the main cohort of professionals who would experience conflict
Recent research, however, indicates that conflict is not only restricted to them. This is particularly due to the change in landscape of the demographic differences of so many professionals
how do professionals cope with conflict
Straying from the expected identity
They do this by either:
Passing – the Intentional or accidental misrepresentation of membership, in the favoured group i.e. that of the expected professional identity
Revealing – the intentional or accidental disclosure of non-membership of the favoured group i.e. that of the expected professional identity
Tools for Straying
Personally altering the structure of work i.e. passing
Focusing on cultivating a local client base
Working on internal projects to reduce travel time
Working from home
Seeking assistance in restructuring work i.e. revealing
Applying for a reduced workload
Seeking parental or carers leave
Hiding or sharing personal information shows how professionals control their personal information
An ideal worker and the professional identity
who is an ideal worker
Due to a move towards 24/7/365 work cycle, employees today are expected to prioritise work ahead of family, personal needs, and even health.
Therefore, and ideal worker is one who is totally committed to and always available to fulfil his or her work duties
What is a professional identity
role identities comprise of goals, values, beliefs, norms, interaction styles, and time horizons associated with the given role
Two main forms of professional identities:
Expected: employers expectations and beliefs are paramount importance
Experienced: centered around your own expectations and beliefs
Organisations employing professionals expect their workers to conform to the ideal worker image
Conflict arises when a workers experience professional identity does not meet the ideal worker image
Integrated identity management (strategies for multiple audiences)
Combining passing and revealing
Factors influencing the use of passing and/or revealing when interacting with audiences
Audience status:
Are the members superior to you, what direct/indirect impact they have on your daily tasks, etc.
People typically pass to the highest status levels, and revealed to the same-status audiences
Closeness of relationship
People pass to those distance to them, and reveal to those they are close to
With closeness is a greater comfort level, which is likely to conceive truth telling
perceived access to formal accommodations
We tend to reveal if we have access to formal accommodation such as parental leave
extremity of the conflict experienced
When faced with extreme circumstances in work (e.g. excessively demanding projects) we reveal while passing on all other circumstances
Still over of perceptions across different audiences
Efforts to pass or appeal to one audience (e.g. high status) can spill over and influence perceptions held to the professionals by other audiences (e.g. same or lower level)
Passing to high status audiences tend to facilitate passing to equal or low-level audiences
Revealing to close colleagues often results in informal restructuring of work which enables one to pass to wider high status audiences
revealing to high status audiences often results in revealing to broader audiences across the organisation
Cultural considerations are very important here
Consequences of using the integrated identity management strategies
Gender differences
On average:
Women are less likely to engage with identity management strategies that allows passing to high status audiences and are more likely to reveal
Men are equally likely to use passing as well as revealing identity management strategies
Women are more likely to utilise formal accommodations provided by employer than men
Senior audience perceptions of professionals dictate the performance evaluation system as well as the broader cultural context in place
external perceptions and performance evaluations
high performance ratings typically given to:
Those who embrace the expected professional identity
Those who use passing (especially to senior status audiences)
Low performance rating given to those who use revealing (especially to senior status audiences) identity management strategies
How do organisations control employees professional identity
Organisational mechanisms of identity control:
Structure of work - successful performance of the professional role being contingent upon always prioritising the work demands over all other life demands, and therefore always being available to the employer
Performance evaluations
Both combined create a self-fulfilling prophecy of professionals continuously adopting the expected professional identity because they want to keep receiving positive reinforcement