Patrizia Hoyer

Narrative identity construction in times of career change: Taking note of unconscious desires

Working at the intersection of narrative and psychoanalytic theory, we present in this article an affective conceptualization of identity dynamics during times of career change, incorporating the notion of unconscious desires. We propose that frictions in career change narratives, such as the paradoxical co-existence of coherence and ambiguity, allude to unconscious subtexts that can become ‘readable’ in the narrative when applying a psychoanalytic framework. We point to the analysis of 30 life story interviews with former management consultants who report upon a past and/or anticipated career change for illustration. By linking three empirically derived narrative strategies for combining coherence and ambiguity (ignoring the change, admitting the ambiguity and depicting a wishful future) with three conceptually informed psychoanalytic ego-defenses (denial, rationalization and sublimation), we provide an analytic framework that helps to explain why workers in transition may try to preserve both coherence and ambiguity when constructing a sense of self through narrative. The analysis of unconscious subtexts reveals that, in times of career change, people’s identity constructions are driven by conflicting unconscious desires for self-continuity on one hand and openness on the other.

Part‐Time Work as Practising Resistance: The Power of Counter‐Arguments

Contributing to a Foucauldian perspective on ‘discursive resistance’, this paper theorizes how part‐time workers struggle to construct a valid position in the rhetorical interplay between norm‐strengthening arguments and norm‐contesting counter‐arguments. It is thereby suggested that both the reproductive and the subversive forces of resistance may very well coexist within the everyday manoeuvres of world‐making. The analysis of these rhetorical interplays in 21 interviews shows how arguments and counter‐arguments produce full‐time work as the dominant discourse versus part‐time work as a legitimate alternative to it. Analysing in detail the effects of four rhetorical interplays, this study shows that, while two of them leave unchallenged the basic assumptions of the dominant full‐time discourse and hence tend instead to reify the dominant discourse, two other interplays succeed in contesting the dominant discourse and establishing part‐time work as a valid alternative. The authors argue that the two competing dynamics of challenging and reifying the dominant are not mutually exclusive, but do in fact coexist.

After Herzog: blurring fact and fiction in visual organizational ethnography

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce the unique artistic approach of film-maker Werner Herzog as an inspiration to rethink ethnographic studies in general and the notion of reflexivity in particular. Design/methodology/approach This paper reviews the particularities of Werner Herzog’s approach to filmmaking, linking them to the methodological tradition of visual ethnography and especially the debate about the role of reflexivity and performativity in research. Findings Herzog’s conceptualization of meaning as “ecstatic truth” offers an avenue for visual organizational ethnographers to rethink reflexivity and performativity, reframe research findings and reorganize research activities. The combination of multiple media and the strong authorial involvement exhibited in Herzog’s work, can inspire and guide the development of “meaningful” organizational ethnographies. Originality/value The paper argues that practicing visual organizational ethnography “after Herzog” offers researchers an avenue to engage creatively with their research in novel and highly reflexive ways. It offers a different way to think through some of the challenges often associated with ethnographic research.

A Guide to Discursive Organizational Psychology

This book offers a lively illustration of the dynamic relationship between discourse and organizational psychology. Contributions include empirically rich discussions of both traditional and widely studied topics such as resistance to change, inclusion and exclusion, participation, multi-stakeholder collaboration and diversity management, as well as newer research areas such as language negotiations, work time arrangements, technology development and change as intervention.

Mapping the field: key themes in discursive organizational psychology

This book offers a lively illustration of the dynamic relationship between discourse and organizational psychology. Contributions include empirically rich discussions of both traditional and widely studied topics such as resistance to change, inclusion and exclusion, participation, multi-stakeholder collaboration and diversity management, as well as newer research areas such as language negotiations, work time arrangements, technology development and change as intervention.

Towards a discursive research agenda for organizational psychology

This book offers a lively illustration of the dynamic relationship between discourse and organizational psychology. Contributions include empirically rich discussions of both traditional and widely studied topics such as resistance to change, inclusion and exclusion, participation, multi-stakeholder collaboration and diversity management, as well as newer research areas such as language negotiations, work time arrangements, technology development and change as intervention.

Part-time work as resistance: the rhetorical interplay between argument and counter-argument

This book offers a lively illustration of the dynamic relationship between discourse and organizational psychology. Contributions include empirically rich discussions of both traditional and widely studied topics such as resistance to change, inclusion and exclusion, participation, multi-stakeholder collaboration and diversity management, as well as newer research areas such as language negotiations, work time arrangements, technology development and change as intervention.

Career change: the role of transition narratives in alternative identity constructions

This book offers a lively illustration of the dynamic relationship between discourse and organizational psychology. Contributions include empirically rich discussions of both traditional and widely studied topics such as resistance to change, inclusion and exclusion, participation, multi-stakeholder collaboration and diversity management, as well as newer research areas such as language negotiations, work time arrangements, technology development and change as intervention.