Search results

1 – 10 of over 46000
Article
Publication date: 20 February 2024

Pooja Purang, Archita Dutta and Sailee Biwalkar

This study aims to focus on understanding the work–family conflict of Indian women engineers through the lens of identity conflict.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to focus on understanding the work–family conflict of Indian women engineers through the lens of identity conflict.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 Indian women engineers working in India and abroad of varying ages and work experience helped in understanding the types, sources and coping decisions about work–family conflicts experienced by them. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyse the qualitative data.

Findings

The findings reveal that as women engineers negotiate their “engineering” and “woman” identities, work–family conflict manifests as a battle of time and responsibilities, psychological strain and behaviour-based conflict. Furthermore, self-expectations and negative social sanctions play an important role in augmenting the experiences of these conflicts. The results also reveal how women re-strategize their career decisions to conciliate their conflicting identities.

Originality/value

This study furthers the literature on resolving work–family conflict by taking an identity perspective. Recommendations in literature such as work flexibility and part-time work, place the onus on women to increase their capacities to perform different roles better. Examining work–family conflict from an identity perspective allows us to look at the psychological processes underlying the challenges women face in balancing work and home in a male-dominated profession. These give insights into the need to go beyond accommodations in the workplace to redefine gender roles and relations for equal participation of women in the modern workforce.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal , vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 July 2023

Kathryn Ostermeier, Peter Anzollitto, Danielle Cooper and Julie Hancock

While many workers have both professional and organizational identities, which can have conflicting expectations, little is known about this specific and common form of identity

Abstract

Purpose

While many workers have both professional and organizational identities, which can have conflicting expectations, little is known about this specific and common form of identity conflict. The purpose of this research is to develop and test a measure of organizational and professional identity conflict (OPIC), which the authors define as a psychological conflict that individuals experience between who they feel they are supposed to be in their organization and who they feel they are supposed to be in their profession. The authors theorize that this identity conflict will lead to emotional exhaustion and psychological distress, further leading to turnover intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the hypothesized model, the authors utilized a two-study constructive replication design (Study 1, n = 225; Study 2, n = 176) and tested the model amongst both academics and health care professionals using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The authors find that identity conflict is associated with both increased levels of emotional exhaustion and psychological distress and, consequently, increased turnover intentions.

Practical implications

Practically, organizations must understand and align themselves with the wider professional expectations, as well as communicate this alignment, in order to avoid OPIC and improve employee well-being.

Originality/value

The authors create and validate a measure to assess and show its detrimental effects on workplace outcomes.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 61 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 October 2011

Claude‐Hélene Mayer and Lynette Louw

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate insights into cross‐cultural conflict, identity and values amongst selected managers within a South African management context. It aims…

4441

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate insights into cross‐cultural conflict, identity and values amongst selected managers within a South African management context. It aims to increase the understanding of these complexities from an academic managerial perspective, thereby providing in‐depth information which can lead to the development of managerial training tools for improving diversity and conflict management in the described context.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors selected qualitative data from a case study that was conducted in the international South African automotive industry. The case study was based on the post‐modernist premise by considering phenomenological and interpretative paradigms most relevant.

Findings

Findings show conflicts in managerial communication and treatment, position and competition, organisation, race and gender and are often defined as “cross‐racial” conflict fuelled by the society's past.

Research limitations/implications

The generalisability is limited to this specific context and needs to be proven by follow‐up studies which expand the context and the methodological approach of the study.

Practical implications

Practical suggestions address the implementation of training tools, coaching and counselling in cross‐cultural conflict management. They are anticipated to create awareness on managing the present challenges and are aimed at managers and international organisations investing in South Africa.

Originality/value

The paper provides new insights into the discussion on human resource management in a specific South African management context by referring to the highly important topics of cross‐cultural conflict, values and identities.

Details

European Business Review, vol. 23 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-534X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 May 2021

Lu Yu and Hong Ren

This study aims to develop a model for female expatriate work adjustment from the identity conflict perspective.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to develop a model for female expatriate work adjustment from the identity conflict perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a theoretical paper that focuses on integrating the existing literature and proposing new constructive relationships.

Findings

We study female expatriates' adjustment processes in the work domain from the identity conflict perspective. Specifically, we categorize female expatriates' identities in the work domain into their gender identity and a work-related role identity cluster and propose that when gender identity is salient, unsupportive national and organizational cultures will lead to gender–work role identity conflicts and eventually result in maladjustment in the work domain.

Originality/value

First, we suggest that female expatriates' work role identities can form a cluster that includes expatriate role, managerial role and occupational role identity. We further theorize how the gender role identity and the work-related role identity cluster of female expatriates interact to influence how they adjust to their work. Second, we explore two contingency factors – host organizational culture and host national culture–and explain how they influence the interaction between female expatriates' gender identity and work-related role identities. Finally, we introduce the concept of gender–work role identity conflict and theorize how it serves as the underlying mechanism linking female expatriate identity patterns and work adjustment.

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2004

Winnifred R. Louis, Donald M. Taylor and Tyson Neil

Two studies in the context of English‐French relations in Québec suggest that individuals who strongly identify with a group derive the individual‐level costs and benefits that…

Abstract

Two studies in the context of English‐French relations in Québec suggest that individuals who strongly identify with a group derive the individual‐level costs and benefits that drive expectancy‐value processes (rational decision‐making) from group‐level costs and benefits. In Study 1, high identifiers linked group‐ and individual‐level outcomes of conflict choices whereas low identifiers did not. Group‐level expectancy‐value processes, in Study 2, mediated the relationship between social identity and perceptions that collective action benefits the individual actor and between social identity and intentions to act. These findings suggest the rational underpinnings of identity‐driven political behavior, a relationship sometimes obscured in intergroup theory that focuses on cognitive processes of self‐stereotyping. But the results also challenge the view that individuals' cost‐benefit analyses are independent of identity processes. The findings suggest the importance of modeling the relationship of group and individual levels of expectancy‐value processes as both hierarchical and contingent on social identity processes.

Details

International Journal of Conflict Management, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1044-4068

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 May 2012

Susanne Blazejewski

Biculturals are portrayed as “ideal” boundary spanners and conflict mediators in MNC who switch between or transcend multiple cultural and/or organizational. The paper aims to…

Abstract

Purpose

Biculturals are portrayed as “ideal” boundary spanners and conflict mediators in MNC who switch between or transcend multiple cultural and/or organizational. The paper aims to critically analyze the assumptions behind this positive view on dual identity in MNC and provide an alternative conceptualization re‐positioning dual identity as a situated and potentially contested process.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper theoretically juxtaposes existing concepts of dual identity in the international business literature with recent advances in research on identity in organization studies and psychology as well as critical perspectives on identity.

Findings

A situated approach to biculturalism provides for a greater variety of identity management strategies corresponding to the metaphors of “surfer”, “soldier”, “struggler”, and “strategist” alike, depending on the identity repertoire available, the perceived situation at hand and the interactive processes of identity construction unfolding. From this perspective, the conflict potential associated with dual identity in MNC does not automatically dissolve as suggested by the literature so far, but depending on the situated enactment of dual identity might actually increase, intensify or even re‐direct the lines of conflict.

Research implications and limitations

The paper develops a comprehensive concept of situated bicultural identity processes in organizational contexts, which can serve as a guiding framework of further empirical research on biculturalism in MNC and also provides initial discussions about suitable hypotheses development in this area.

Originality/value

The international business literature so far is dominated by a limited understanding of biculturalism in MNC, strongly influenced by the concept of frame switching in cross‐cultural psychology. The paper introduces an alternative concept of biculturalism as a situated process, which can serve as a framework for further and more varied research on biculturalist identity negotiation in MNC.

Details

Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 13 November 2008

Thomas E. Boudreau and Brian D. Polkinghorn

Groups often perpetuate conflict by developing and enforcing hostile, dehumanized, and objectified images of the “other” with whom they intentionally engage in conflict. The…

Abstract

Groups often perpetuate conflict by developing and enforcing hostile, dehumanized, and objectified images of the “other” with whom they intentionally engage in conflict. The thesis of this article is that if the double hermeneutics of identity “framing processes” (Lewicki, Gray, & Elliot, 2003) drive the dehumanization of the excluded or enemy other, then these same processes can be a factor in the social reconstruction of another's humanity. Specifically, a model of identity affirmation is posited that can ideally challenge and change the dominant discourses and narratives that go into the in-group's social construction of a dehumanized out-group. As such, the process of identity affirmation is designed to be used to rehumanize a once ethnic, excluded, or even enemy “other.” This model was inspired by, and is applied to, a brief case study outlined in the essay involving the Onondaga Sheriff's Department headquartered in Syracuse, New York, and the Onondaga Indians who are part of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Details

Pushing the Boundaries: New Frontiersin Conflict Resolution and Collaboration
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-290-6

Article
Publication date: 8 July 2014

Angela Kachuyevski and Ronnie Olesker

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conflict analysis framework that better captures the complexity of conflicts in divided societies by including the differing perceptions…

1450

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conflict analysis framework that better captures the complexity of conflicts in divided societies by including the differing perceptions of identity boundaries between ethnic majorities and minorities in divided societies.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis draws on the social boundaries and societal security literatures to develop a typology representing four dyads of perceived identity boundaries that illustrate the different dynamics of ethnic relations in divided societies.

Findings

The exploratory cases illustrate how the perceptions of identity boundaries have implications for conflict dynamics that call for different conflict management strategies.

Research limitations/implications

The empirical cases serve to illustrate the application of the theoretical framework. Policy makers devising conflict management strategies in these deeply divided societies are likely to err if differing perceptions of social boundaries are not taken into consideration. Thus, the authors provide explicit policy recommendations for conflict management in each of the dyads presented in the typology.

Practical implications

Using the framework that incorporates differing perceptions of identity allows analysts to account for the impact of external actors in shaping and maintaining identity boundaries and allows for a consideration of the possible differing interpretations of the boundary held by different groups as well as the implications this has for conflict analysis and management.

Originality/value

The authors develop a model that accounts for the perceptions of both the majority and the minority of the identity boundaries that separate divided societies. They account for the implications for conflict dynamics and thus for conflict management strategies of differing perceptions of identity boundaries, which provides a perspective that is both theoretically significant and policy relevant, as most policy makers assume that ethnic minorities and majorities see the social boundary between them in similar terms.

Details

International Journal of Conflict Management, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1044-4068

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 March 2021

Shin-Horng Chen, Wei-Tsong Wang and Chih-Tsen Lu

Understanding the construction of individual entrepreneurial identity for entrepreneurship education is an important but understudied issue. Prior studies indicate that…

Abstract

Purpose

Understanding the construction of individual entrepreneurial identity for entrepreneurship education is an important but understudied issue. Prior studies indicate that entrepreneurship learning is associated with not only learning critical entrepreneurial skills and knowledge but also facilitating the construction of a personal entrepreneurial identity. However, educators are constantly challenged by the task of facilitating such an identity within students via learning-by-doing processes in the context of entrepreneurial teams. Additionally, while effective conflict management is essential to productive entrepreneurial learning in entrepreneurial teams, studies that investigate the relationships between interpersonal conflicts of entrepreneurial teams and the students' entrepreneurial identity are absent.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach of an in-depth case study was adopted to achieve our research purpose.

Findings

A conceptual model that describes the construction of the entrepreneurial identity of students of entrepreneurial teams in a learning-by-doing environment from the perspectives of conflicts and task characteristics are developed.

Research limitations/implications

The research findings highlight the preliminary relationships between task characteristics (i.e. task interdependence, task uncertainty, resource competition and tension regarding responsibility allocation) and interpersonal conflicts of entrepreneurial teams, and their impacts on the entrepreneurial identity of team members.

Originality/value

This study is among the first group of studies that especially explores the relationships among task characteristics of entrepreneurship projects, interpersonal conflicts and the development of students' entrepreneurial identity.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 63 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 September 2012

Cigdem V. Sirin

This study aims to examine the effects of ethnic and social identities on negotiation decision making in the context of the Cyprus conflict.

1316

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effects of ethnic and social identities on negotiation decision making in the context of the Cyprus conflict.

Design/methodology/approach

The author conducts a theory‐driven case study of the 1959 Zurich‐London agreements on Cyprus, analyzing the positions of Turkey, Greece, Britain, and the Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities during the negotiation process. The analytical method is the applied decision analysis procedure.

Findings

The analysis of the Zurich‐London negotiations over Cyprus suggests that even in the presence of adversarial ethnic ties, decision makers who have a shared (and salient) social identity are more likely to employ collective‐serving decision strategies and seek even‐handed solutions that will not jeopardize their mutual interests. Here, Turkey and Greece – both NATO members – decided to settle on a commonly agreed negotiation outcome despite their ethnicity‐driven, clashing interests over Cyprus. In contrast, decision makers with severe ethnic fragmentation with no shared social identity (as with the Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities) are more prone to employ self‐serving decision strategies and seek zero‐sum negotiation outcomes that will exclusively benefit them.

Research limitations/implications

Regarding the applied decision analysis procedure employed in this study, it is necessary to acknowledge the subjective nature of the construction of the decision matrices with respective values/ratings, even though such procedure is based on empirical and situational evidence.

Originality/value

The study introduces a novel theoretical and analytical framework to the literature on negotiation decision making in identity‐based conflicts by combining the social contextualist perspective with the polyheuristic decision model and using applied decision analysis. By anchoring the analysis in the historical context of the Cyprus conflict, the study also contributes to the relatively underdeveloped literature on conflict management in the Middle East.

Details

International Journal of Conflict Management, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1044-4068

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 46000