This article seeks to explore how older individuals negotiate and manage their self-identity in relation to work while situated without paid employment. After reviewing the current positions of the older unemployed in the UK, noting the substantial overlap between age and disability, we turn our...

This paper proposes the concept of ‘gender (in)authenticity’ to think about the apparent congruence or non-congruence of gender and engineering identities for men and women engineers respectively, in terms of the normative pressures of ‘the way things are’. Drawing on ethnographic...

Studies on identity work have focused primarily on internal organizational relations, and have yet to examine if, and how, identity work occurs amongst stakeholder groups. Our paper addresses this gap in the literature through an ethnographic study of one Indigenous group – the Machiguenga, a...

In this paper we investigate and explore middle managerial talk and practice connected to expectations of leadership in a planned corporate cultural change. In the paper we follow how a middle manager positions himself in relation to the contemporary discourse on leadership. In particular we...

This article describes the role of personal development training in managers’ identity processes. Personal development training constitutes a local management discourse, which can influence both identity work and identity regulation processes. The study emphasizes the importance of personal...

Studies on identity work have focused primarily on internal organizational relations, and have yet to examine if, and how, identity work occurs amongst stakeholder groups. Our paper addresses this gap in the literature through an ethnographic study of one Indigenous group – the...

The aim of this chapter is to better understand how identity regulation – a key mode of control – is exercised within organizations. This process ‘encompasses the more or less intentional effects of social practices upon processes of identity construction and reconstruction’ (Alvesson &...

In the last decades, identity has become an increasing target and outcome of organizational control, notably through processes of identity regulation (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002). Several studies provide strong evidence of the relevance of the organizational practices of identity regulation...

In the last decades, identity has become an increasing target and outcome of organizational control, notably through processes of identity regulation (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002). Several studies provide strong evidence of the relevance of the organizational practices of identity regulation...

Identity construction (IC) cannot be reduced to discourses, nor to individual responsibility. Alvesson & Wilmott (2002) suggest two main processes of identity construction : identity regulation (IR, the discursive practices of identity definition) and identity work (IW, the interpretive...