Organizational Psychology: When, Why, and How Is Identity Work (Less) Important in Organizational Life?

This chapter examines if identity is as important as is often claimed, and as a consequence, when and why concerns of identity are triggered in working life, and we do so through a constructionist identity perspective. In the chapter, we argue that many people do not necessarily engage with their identities most of the time and explore why they do in certain kinds of jobs and in particular situations while in others identity is neither present nor salient, at least not as a major issue. The chapter aims to cut down the identity concept in size and suggests that a more focused view on identity may help us come to better grips with what on one level is of great societal concern: identity-related struggle, tension, and confusion in people’s working lives; without adding too much to another concern: a (re)production of unwanted narcissism in our already narcissistic time of age.