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Purpose – Stryker's identity theory has impacted sociological social psychology for a half century and still inspires an active research agenda. To date, however, its terms and arguments have not been analyzed closely. Our purpose with this project was to conduct such an analysis.

Design/Methodology/Approach – We provide a detailed rationale for our analytic method that entails an objective examination of a theory's clarity, parsimony, precision, and other essential scientific qualities. It is applied using procedures that, among other functions, check terms for clarity and consistency of usage, and ensure that key arguments are logically valid.

Findings – The analysis revealed significant gaps and ambiguities in the core theory. We offered a series of recommendations designed to supply missing logical elements, clarify definitions, and streamline the terminological system. We sought to remain true to the original theory's purposes while further strengthening its coherence, transparency, and overall utility.

Practical Implications – Kurt Lewin's famous maxim applies well here: “Nothing is so practical as a good theory.” To the extent that a body of research is claimed to be theory-driven, gaps and ambiguities throw into question the results of empirical tests and applications that ostensibly are backed by the theory. Without theoretical support, findings are neither meaningful nor generalizable.

Social Implications – A logically sound and semantically transparent identity theory will have the greatest chance for making real differences in society via practical applications.

Originality/Value of the Chapter – We offer a straightforward method to ensure meaningfulness and integrity in social science theories. Such analyses are rare, but we hope that their utility for theory-driven research programs such as identity theory's is evident.

This chapter examines how individuals’ perceptions of others’ task competence, treatment of other group members, tendency to conform, and work group identification depend on both status and identity commitment. We integrate tenets of both role identity theory and status characteristics theory in formulating propositions concerning which of multiple status attributes are utilized when assessing others’ task competence and treating other group members, when a solo low-status group member is less likely to conform with the group, and when a solo high-status group member has low identification with his or her group. Our theory development highlights the value of integrating these theories in understanding group phenomenon for both research and practice.

Sayings like “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life” epitomize Western society’s emphasis on both the importance and assumed positive nature of passion for work. Although research has linked passion and increased well-being, growing anecdotal evidence suggests the potential for negative individual outcomes of work passion, including decreased well-being and increased stress and burnout. In the present chapter, the authors integrate the Dualistic Model of Passion (which consists of harmonious and obsessive passion), identity theory, and identity threat to describe the paradox of passion, in which individuals overidentify with the target of their passion (i.e., work), resulting in the “too much of a good thing” effect driven by excess passion of either type. The authors thus provide a novel theoretical lens through which to examine the different reactions that individuals may enact in response to threats to passion-related identities, including how these responses might differentially impact well-being, stress, and burnout. The authors conclude by offering future directions for research on the paradox of passion.

This study seeks to examine the identity‐relevant stress proposition according to which events occurring in highly‐salient identity domains have a greater impact on psychological well‐being than events occurring in less salient identity domains. The aim of the study is to integrate identity theory into occupational stress research by investigating the proposition that the lack of verification of a salient role identity will be associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion.

Using a questionnaire methodology, data were obtained from full‐time, permanent, human resource professionals from multiple organizations.

As predicted, the lack of verification that occurs when an employer denies a professional the opportunity to engage in the responsibilities associated with a salient role was associated with more emotional exhaustion. Moreover, in a way consistent with identity theory, both role prestige and affective commitment to the profession moderated this relationship, providing additional support for the identity‐relevant stress proposition.

Identity theory offers a valuable perspective for work stress research, one that appears to be especially applicable to highly professionalized occupations.

The relationship between intergroup conflict and intragroup cohesion is a longstanding concern in sociology and related disciplines. Past work suggests that intergroup conflict shapes emotional bonds between group members, promotes in-group and out-group stereotyping, encourages self-sacrifice for the group, and changes the social structure of groups. Conflict thus plays an important structural role in organizing social interaction. Although sociologists contributed much to the beginnings of this research tradition, sociological attention to the conflict–cohesion link has waned in recent decades. We contend that despite advances in our understanding of the conflict–cohesion hypothesis, more remains to be done, and sociologists are especially equipped to tackle these unanswered questions. As such, we encourage sociologists to revisit the study of intergroup conflict and intragroup cohesion and offer some possibilities for furthering our understanding of this phenomenon. After reviewing and evaluating the relevant literatures on the conflict–cohesion hypothesis, we consider ways in which a broad range of current theories from the group process tradition – including theories of status, exchange, justice, identity, and emotion – could contribute to understanding the conflict–cohesion hypothesis and how those theories could benefit from considering the conflict–cohesion hypothesis. In doing so, we make a case for the continuing importance of sociology in explaining the link between intergroup conflict and intragroup cohesion.

Despite the considerable increase in research on entrepreneurship education, few studies examine the role of entrepreneurship educators. Similarly, most frameworks from entrepreneurship education recognize the educator’s importance in facilitating instruction and assessment, but the factors influencing the educator role are not well understood. According to the identity theory, personal factors including self-efficacy, job satisfaction and personal values influence the perspective of self, significance and anticipations that an individual in this role associates with it, determining their planning and actions. The stronger the role identity the more likely entrepreneurship educators will be in effectively developing their entrepreneurial skills as well as the overall learning experience of their students. The objective of this study is to pinpoint the factors that affect entrepreneurial role identity.

Drawing upon the identity theory, this study developed a theoretical framework and carried out an empirical investigation involving a survey of 289 entrepreneurship educators across the globe. Structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was applied to analyze and explore the factors that impact the identity of the educators in their role as entrepreneurship teachers.

The findings show that the role identity of entrepreneurship educators is significantly influenced by their self-efficacy, job satisfaction and personal values. Among these factors, self-efficacy and job satisfaction have the most significant impacts on how educators perceive their role. The implications of these results and directions for future research are also discussed.

The novelty of the current study is derived from its conceptualization of the antecedents of role perception among entrepreneurship educators. This study stands out as one of the earliest attempts to investigate the factors that shape an individual’s scene of self and professional identity as an entrepreneurship educator. The significance of comprehending the antecedents of role perception lies in the insights it can offer into how educators undertake and execute their role, and consequently, their effectiveness in teaching entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that discerns when and how extra role behaviors result in positive versus negative outcomes for individuals and organizations. The focus is on how employees' citizenship identities shape extra‐role behaviors which include both organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and contextual performance behaviors (CPBs).

The paper uses role identity theory as the theoretical lens to develop the model of extra‐role behaviors, distinguishing between OCBs and CPBs.

While extra‐role behaviors are generally associated with positive organizational functioning, these behaviors also have been linked to negative individual outcomes, such as work‐family conflict, role overload, and reduced task performance. Based on previous research and theory, a conceptual model is developed that explains when extra‐role behaviors will occur, when and why these behaviors will be internalized as an identity, and how identities affect whether employees engage in OCBs or CPBs. Further, the paper examines the influence of these extra‐role behaviors on long term positive and negative outcomes.

The main research implication of this paper is the use of role identity theory to further understanding of the nature of extra‐role behaviors.

The paper aims to offer a comprehensive theoretically based model to explain OCBs and incorporates research conducted to date to develop the model.

Drawing upon the creativity interaction theory and expectation-identity perspective, the purpose of this paper is to construct a chain mediation model of the influence of workplace status on individual creativity from the perspective of expectation identity and to explore the moderating effect of prosocial motivation in this model.

This study reached 529 employees from 35 enterprises as the investigation objects and used structural equation model and hierarchical regression for data analysis. Data on workplace status, prosocial motivation, creativity expectations and creativity role identity were collected at Time Point T1, and individual creativity was collected at time point T2 (one month later).

The results reveal that: workplace status has a significantly positive effect on creativity; creativity performance expectations and creativity role identity have partial mediating effect in the relationship between workplace status and creativity, respectively; creativity performance expectations and creativity role identity play a chain double mediation role in the relationship between workplace status and creativity; and prosocial motivation moderates the relationship between workplace status and creativity and further moderates the chain double mediation effect of creativity performance expectations and creativity role identity.

In existing studies, conclusions about the relationship between workplace status and individual creativity could be divided into three viewpoints: positive, negative and U-shaped. These inconsistent findings on the relationship between workplace status and creativity imply that the relationship is complex and not fully elucidated. This may be attributed to the fact that workplace status is influenced by cultural factors and research objects. This study reinterprets the relationship between workplace status and individual creativity through the lens of creativity interaction theory and demonstrates the significance of employee workplace status in the Chinese context.

Work-life flexibility policies (e.g., flextime, telework, part-time, right-to-disconnect, and leaves) are increasingly important to employers as productivity and well-being strategies. However, policies have not lived up to their potential. In this chapter, the authors argue for increased research attention to implementation and work-life intersectionality considerations influencing effectiveness. Drawing on a typology that conceptualizes flexibility policies as offering employees control across five dimensions of the work role boundary (temporal, spatial, size, permeability, and continuity), the authors develop a model identifying the multilevel moderators and mechanisms of boundary control shaping relationships between using flexibility and work and home performance. Next, the authors review this model with an intersectional lens. The authors direct scholars’ attention to growing workforce diversity and increased variation in flexibility policy experiences, particularly for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality, which is defined as having multiple intersecting identities (e.g., gender, caregiving, and race), that are stigmatized, and link to having less access to and/or benefits from societal resources to support managing the work-life interface in a social context. Such an intersectional focus would address the important need to shift work-life and flexibility research from variable to person-centered approaches. The authors identify six research considerations on work-life intersectionality in order to illuminate how traditionally assumed work-life relationships need to be revisited to address growing variation in: access, needs, and preferences for work-life flexibility; work and nonwork experiences; and benefits from using flexibility policies. The authors hope that this chapter will spur a conversation on how the work-life interface and flexibility policy processes and outcomes may increasingly differ for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality compared to those with lower work-life intersectionality in the context of organizational and social systems that may perpetuate growing work-life and job inequality.

Despite recognition of the centrality of emotions in entrepreneurship, little attention has been given to role of emotions in the development of entrepreneurial identity or enactment of entrepreneurial role. The contribution of the chapter is in the development of a dynamic model of the process leading to identification or dis-identification as an entrepreneur. In this chapter, we develop a dynamic model of the process leading to identification or dis-identification as an entrepreneur. We theorize that the driver behind an individual’s decision to become an entrepreneur, and their significant emotional experiences in the entrepreneurial role, influence the likelihood of following an identification or dis-identification cycle. Specifically, our framework proposes that positive emotions strengthen approach motivation and identification with the role, while negative ones foster avoidance motivation and dis-identification. We argue that contextual embeddedness can prompt transition between these two cycles. Our theorization provides new insights into methods of analyzing the role of emotions in the entrepreneurial process, more specifically in the process of entrepreneurial identity crafting. These insights also can be translated into studying the crafting of any professional identity.