Spencer Harrison

Identification in Organizations: An Examination of Four Fundamental Questions

The literature on identification in organizations is surprisingly diverse and large. This article reviews the literature in terms of four fundamental questions. First, under “What is identification?,” it outlines a continuum from narrow to broad formulations and differentiates situated identification from deep identification and organizational identification from organizational commitment. Second, in answer to “Why does identification matter?,” it discusses individual and organizational outcomes as well as several links to mainstream organizational behavior topics. Third, regarding “How does identification occur?,” it describes a process model that involves cycles of sensebreaking and sensegiving, enacting identity and sensemaking, and constructing identity narratives. Finally, under “One or many?,” it discusses team, workgroup, and subunit; relational; occupational and career identifications; and how multiple identifications may conflict, converge, and combine.

Curiosity adapted the cat: the role of trait curiosity in newcomer adaptation.

Using longitudinal data from 123 newcomers across 12 telemarketing organizations, we examined the role of 2 forms of trait curiosity (specific and diversive) as antecedents of proximal adaptation behaviors (information seeking and positive framing) and more distal, in-role and extra-role behaviors (job performance and taking charge). Results suggest that specific curiosity predicts information seeking behaviors, whereas diversive curiosity promotes positive framing. Results also support the relationship between positive framing and performance and the extra-role behavior of taking charge. Overall, the study validates the role of curiosity as a multifaceted individual difference that serves as an antecedent to newcomer adaptation.

Clean Climbing, Carabiners, and Cultural Cultivation: Developing an Open-Systems Perspective of Culture

In this inductive study, we explore the dynamics between Alpinista (a pseudonym), a company that designs and manufactures rock climbing and skiing gear, and the broader cultures within which the company is embedded. Our data pushed us toward the notion of “culture as toolkit,” a perspective that focuses on culture as a set of means or resources used to solve problems. By applying this perspective, we realized that Alpinistas cultural toolkit and the cultural register of the sports (the sum of the toolkits and cultural resources available for members in the environment) influence one another. To explain these dynamics, we induce a grounded model of cultural cultivation---practices that contribute to the intermingling of organizational and societal cultures---that describes cultural infusions (when the organization imports cultural materials and translates them) and cultural seeding (when the organization exports cultural materials into the environment). We describe which actors (both inside and outside of the organization) can be involved in these processes. The model that emerges from these data provides insight into the cultural dynamics present as organizational culture and broader societal cultures interact, providing insight on issues of organizational authenticity and the paradox of similarity and uniqueness.

Thoughts and Feelings About Organizational Change A Field Test of Appraisal Theory

This longitudinal field study examines the relationships among the three focal constructs within appraisal theory—appraisal, emotion, and coping—at the beginning of change and their relationship with employee withdrawal at the end of an organizational restructuring. New theory is used to integrate past theory and research to propose and test a model containing synchronous reciprocal relationships between negative appraisal and negative emotions. Results confirmed a synchronous reciprocal relationship between negative appraisal and negative emotions, which suggests that appraisal is not a sequential process as often conceptualized and tested in the past. Negative appraisals and negative emotions also had negative relationships with control coping, which was negatively associated to intentions to quit, which in turn predicted subsequent voluntary turnover. This study thus extends appraisal theory and demonstrates it is a powerful alternative (theoretical) means for examining employee reactions to organizational change. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Generative organizational identity change: Approaching organizational authenticity as a process

A.P. Brief, J.P. Walsh, Series Foreword. Part 1. Introduction. J.E. Dutton, L.M. Roberts, J. Bednar, Positive Identities and Organizations: An Introduction and Invitation. Part 2. Positive Identities and Individuals in Organizations. G.E. Kreiner, M.L. Sheep, Growing Pains and Gains: Framing Identity Dynamics as Opportunities for Identity Growth. S. Maitlis, Who am I Now? Sensemaking and Identity in Posttraumatic Growth. A. Carlsen, T. Pitsis, Experiencing Hope in Organizational Lives. B.B. Caza, M.G. Wilson, Me, Myself, and I: The Benefits of Work-Identity Complexity. N.P. Rothbard, L. Ramarajan, Checking Your Identities at the Door? Positive Relationships Between Non-Work and Work Identities. L.M. Roberts, S.E. Cha, P.F. Hewlin, I.H. Settles, Bringing the Inside Out: Enhancing Authenticity and Positive Identity in Organizations. B.E. Ashforth, Commentary: Positive Identities and the Individual. Part 3. Positive Identities and Relationships in Groups and Organizations. C.D. LeBaron, P. Glenn, M.P. Thompson, Identity Work During Boundary Moments: Managing Positive Identities Through Talk and Embodied Interaction. D.S. DeRue, S.J. Ashford, N.C. Cotton, Assuming the Mantle: Unpacking the Process by Which Individuals Internalize a Leader Identity. B.R. Ragins, Positive Identities in Action: A Model of Mentoring Self-Structures and the Motivation to Mentor. S. Kopelman, L.L. Chen, J. Shoshana, Re-Narrating Positive Relational Identities in Organizations: Self-Narration as a Mechanism for Strategic Emotion Management in Interpersonal Interactions. L.P. Milton, Creating and Sustaining Cooperation in Interdependent Groups: Positive Relational Identities, Identity Confirmation and Cooperative Capacity. L.H. MacPhail, K.S. Roloff, A.C. Edmondson, Collaboration Across Knowledge Boundaries within Diverse Teams: Reciprocal Expertise Affirmation as an Enabling Condition. J. Sanchez-Burks, F. Lee, Commentary: The Elusive Search for a Positive Identity: Grappling with Multiplicity and Conflict. Part 4. Positive Identities and Organizations and Communities. K.G. Corley, S.H. Harrison, Generative Organizational Identity Change: Approaching Organizational Authenticity as a Process. M.G. Pratt, M.S. Kraatz, E. Pluribus Unum: Multiple Identities and the Organizational Self. S.L. Brickson, G. Lemmon, Organizational Identity as a Stakeholder Resource. A. Hamilton, D.A. Gioia, Fostering Sustainability-Focused Organizational Identities. C. Marquis, G.F. Davis, Organization Mechanisms Underlying Positive Community Identity and Reputation. M.A. Glynn, I.J. Walsh, Commentary: Finding the Positive in Positive Organizational Identities. Part 5: Conclusion. L.M. Roberts, J.E. Dutton, J. Bednar, Forging Ahead: Positive Identities and Organizations as a Research Frontier.

Individual and Team Creativity: An Interactionist Examination of Creativity in Different Contexts

Research on individual and team creativity in organizations puts a premium on understanding the factors influencing creativity at work. There is growing evidence showing that a better understanding of creativity can be achieved by simultaneously considering the influence of both individual differences and the context in which the individual is embedded. To advance this body of literature, this symposium consists of four papers that use the interactionist perspective to investigate personal and team characteristics and context as antecedents to a variety of creativity-related outcomes (e.g., individual creativity, team creativity, incremental creativity, and radical creativity. These studies are conducted using different research methods in a number of diverse settings, including a multi-wave field study in the food manufacturing industry, teams of University employees engaged in a gingerbread house building competition, lab studies evaluating lone and collaborative creator narratives, and qualitative fiel...