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Betwixt and between identities: Liminal experience in contemporary careers
Abstract
Liminality, defined as a state of being betwixt and between social roles and/or identities, is the hallmark of an increasingly precarious and fluctuating career landscape. The generative potential of the liminality construct, however, has been restricted by six key assumptions stemming from the highly institutionalized nature of the rites of passage originally studied. As originally construed, liminality (1) implied both an objective state and the subjective experience of feeling betwixt and between, and was (2) temporary, (3) obligatory, (4) guided by elders and/or supported by a community of fellow liminars, (5) rooted in culturally legitimate narratives, (6) and led to a progressive outcome, i.e., the next logical step in a role hierarchy. By recasting these assumptions as variables, we improve the construct’s clarity, precision, and applicability to contemporary liminal experiences that are increasingly under-institutionalized. We illustrate the utility of our updated conceptualization by arguing that under-institutionalized liminality is both more difficult to endure and more fertile for identity growth than the highly institutionalized experiences that gave rise to the original notion. Drawing from adult development theory, we further propose that for under-institutionalized experiences to foster identity growth, the identity processes involved need to be more akin to identity play than identity work. We discuss the theoretical implications of our ideas for research on liminality, identity, and careers.
... Building on the findings, we introduce a new model that proposes liminality challenging refugees' self-and other-focused meaningfulness and captures refugees' temporal meaningfulness-making to navigate their challenged sense of meaningfulness in liminality. Whereas research on liminality has traditionally focused on self-focused changes in a liminal space (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016), we also highlight the social aspect of liminality; how navigating a liminal space requires building social connections, unity, and contribution. ...
... We argue that refugees' liminality is under-institutionalized. As refugees travel the largely idiosyncratic roads towards integration, their liminal space has few institutionalized scripts to follow, rituals to mark milestones, or guarantees for when this liminality will be over; all characteristics of institutionalized liminality (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). Also, unlike institutionalized liminality, which typically leads to higher status, refugees' under-institutionalized liminality often results in vocational and social status loss. ...
... Further, while institutionalized liminality confines doubt and disorientation to the space between the old and the new, for refugees, these emotions and thoughts may start long before migration and persist even when vocational circumstances stabilize post-migration. In all, refugees' under-institutionalized liminality is a cognitively and emotionally ambivalent space, both perilous and potentially providing room for self-reinvention and positive development in one's vocational self (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). ...
This study explores how refugees, i.e., people experiencing liminality due to career and life disruptions, make work-related meaningfulness, and it uncovers how they apply temporality in their meaningfulness-making. Analyzing 48 interviews of 24 refugees in Germany, the findings show how, post-migration, refugees faced two types of under-institutionalized liminal experiences challenging their meaningfulness – one concerning self-focused and one pertaining to other-focused sources of meaningfulness. To navigate these liminal experiences, refugees actively made meaningfulness. This was a temporal process, as refugees connected their past, present, and future. They drew on their past and present vocational experiences when moving toward their future vocational self, built on their past and acted in the present to secure present and future social connections, amplified synergies and resolved tensions in meaningfulness sources, and compensated unavailable meaningfulness sources with available ones. Based on our findings, we propose a model on how people make meaningfulness despite missing its main ingredients (i.e., a clear sense of self and social connections) and how under-institutionalized liminality can turn from a space devoid of meaningfulness into an agentic and creative space of meaningfulness-making. We contribute to meaningfulness, temporality, and liminality research.
... First, the temporal dimension is associated with three phases, as Van Gennep (1960) put forth initially, in which the individual experiences 1) a separation from one's existing environment, routines and status; 2) a liminal phase or transition in which learning emerges; and 3) an incorporation phase into a new status and role in society. 1 Second, liminality is a phase of uncertainty and ambiguity (Garsten, 1999) that represents a subjective emotional component of experiencing doubt, frustration, confusion and anxiety. Simultaneously, liminality also entails hope, potentiality, opportunities, creativity and transformation (Beech, 2011;Garcia-Lorenzo et al., 2018;Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). However, the limbo of having no specific status provides possibilities for playfulness and new ways of doing things. ...
... Third, social guidance is another central aspect of liminality, as described by Turner (1967), in the form of communitas, comprising others going through the same liminal passage. An equivalent to the communitas described in traditional rituals are peers in an education programme that provides social support and a point of comparison to help shape a student's self-understanding (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). Felten (2016) pointed further to the importance of developing confidence from a sense of belonging in threshold crossing. ...
... Peter's narrative supports previous studies suggesting that some individuals acknowledge being 'in between' and take advantage of it (Borg & Söderlund, 2015a;Tempest & Starkey, 2004). Ibarra and Obodaru (2016) noted that being 'both' is better than being 'neither' when undergoing liminality; thus, the student narratives demonstrate how being 'in between' can be a challenge when feeling 'neither' like a student nor an entrepreneur, as well as an opportunity when feeling 'both'. ...
The paper explores entrepreneurship students' transformational learning processes through the concept of liminality.
... Il est alors important de mentionner que, si le concept général de transition propose une définition évoquant une forme de rupture dans la vie de la personne, avec des changements affectant ses rôles, ses conduites et ses perceptions, permettant une adaptation au changement et aux nouvelles identités et nouveaux rôles (Masdonati & Zittoun, 2012 ;Sullivan & Al Ariss, 2021), l'interprétation des transitions par les personnes de notre recherche semble se définir par d'autres configurations. Nous pouvons faire l'hypothèse que l'espace de remaniement identitaire, cet entre-deux appelé « espace de liminalité » (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016), qui renvoie à ce moment de transition où l'identité passée « n'est plus » et l'identité future n'est pas encore advenue, devienne davantage la norme en anthropocène. En effet, les transformations sociétales et professionnelles ainsi que les crises écologiques ne permettent plus aux personnes d'effectuer une transition avec une période de début suivie d'une fin marquée avec un retour à une stabilité de parcours. ...
... Les transitions que cette transformation génère impliquent qu'ils auront sans doute la tâche de redéfinir leurs rôles et leurs identités au rythme des changements nécessaires pour être à la hauteur des défis induits par la crise socio-écologique actuelle. Il est crucial pour l'accompagnement à l'orientation et aux parcours de vie de questionner et d'intégrer davantage cette notion de liminalité, comme décrite ci-dessus, et identifier des interventions permettant d'étayer ce phénomène identitaire (Crettenand, 2021 ;Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). ...
De nombreuses activités professionnelles devront se transformer si nos sociétés souhaitent respecter les limites planétaires et décarboner nos modes de production. Il semblerait qu’au sein de nombreux secteurs professionnels des personnes entreprennent une transition socio- écologique, au-delà des domaines clairement identifiés par les métiers de « l’environnement », de « la nature » et de « l’énergie ». Cette recherche qualitative explore les parcours de 20 personnes qui se disent « en chemin » pour intégrer les questions des limites planétaires et sociales dans leur trajectoire professionnelle et de vie. Une analyse thématique réflexive d’entretiens collectifs a permis d’identifier deux thèmes principaux. Le premier thème évoque les perceptions de la situation (I) et le deuxième, le cheminement personnel en direction des limites écologiques (II) qui en découle. Cette étude propose une typologie de parcours en quatre types d’action professionnelle mise en œuvre par les participant·es. Cette recherche peut permettre une meilleure compréhension du phénomène des gens en chemin et son implication possible pour les pratiques d’orientation.
... In building on the concept of liminal experiences, organization scholars have explored liminal phenomena across levels of analysis, with a particular focus on behaviors occurring within the context of unresolved change. People in organizations experience liminal professional identities when between jobs or career progression milestones (see Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). Milestones are helpful in that they can allow individuals to enter a deliberative mindset that is more objective in its information processing-even if only temporary-as they move toward ambitious goals (McMullen & Kier, 2016). ...
... Some of their ventures were closed and their ambitions stalled, but they persisted in venturing while cultivating entrepreneurial readiness, which compensated for the lack of a tangible means of conventionalizing their entrepreneurial endeavors and the NVC process. Research on organizational liminality emphasizes transition between milestones (see Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016) because milestones allow individuals to enter a deliberative mindset, which processes information more objectively-even if only temporary-as they move toward ambitious goals (McMullen & Kier, 2016). Milestones are needed to protect entrepreneurs from being stuck in a perpetual state of liminality where one is susceptible to escalation of commitment owing to the implemental mindset, which exhibits a self-serving bias when processing information (McMullen & Kier, 2016). ...
The new venture creation process is a central phenomenon in entrepreneurship research. Typically, scholarship has sought to identify common, linear stages of development in this process in pursuit of a sustained, growing venture. In contrast to this theory, this study reveals dynamic, non‐linear venturing processes that allowed for venture persistence despite failing to ‘progress’ toward traditional outcomes. We generate these insights from qualitative data on Syrian refugee entrepreneurs seeking to create and sustain ventures in Lebanon while living in a state of limbo – a precarious situation where the future is unknown and unknowable. We organize our findings in a model of venturing in limbo, which explains why and how entrepreneurs persist in venture creation practices despite experiencing repeated and significant setbacks that return them ‘to square one’. We reveal dynamic venture creation processes that allow for adaptive responses to erratic environmental shifts by producing entrepreneurial readiness, which consists of behavioural, cognitive, and psychological/emotional capabilities. Entrepreneurial readiness enables persistence of venturing efforts in the face of chronic precarity. Our study contributes to theory on new venture creation in entrepreneurship and organizational liminality.
... Second, exploring liminal leader-follower identity states. Individuals may not always have clarity about who they are, and some events my cue a liminal state of being "in between" a leader and a follower identity (Braun et al., in press;Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). Leader-follower identity liminality is likely in situations of high uncertainty, such as when transitions take place (e.g., Ibarra, 1999), when roles are not clearly defined (e.g., leadership responsibility without a managerial role), or when concurrently holding multiple roles (e.g., middle managers; (Jaser, 2021a). ...
... Leader-follower identity liminality is likely in situations of high uncertainty, such as when transitions take place (e.g., Ibarra, 1999), when roles are not clearly defined (e.g., leadership responsibility without a managerial role), or when concurrently holding multiple roles (e.g., middle managers; (Jaser, 2021a). Such liminal identity states may trigger identity exploration and play (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016), as drivers for intra-personal leader-follower identity changes. ...
... As an executive coach, I find that career choices and transitions are a staple feature of coaching sessions (Yates et al., 2017) and involve identity and identity work (Ashforth and Schinoff, 2016;Ibarra and Obodaru, 2016). Here in the West, what we do for a living has increasingly become a primary method of self-definition. ...
... "Identity is about meaning and mattering" (Parker, 2016, p. 427), so focusing on identity during times of career transition is a key coaching discussion, encouraging clients to step back and take a holistic view of the self they want to actively craft (Watson, 2008). Theories such as "identity as adaptation" (Baumeister and Muraven, 1996), multiple and shifting identities (Brewer and Pickett, 1999), possible and impossible selves (Markus and Nurius, 1986;Sturgess, 1999;Ibarra and Obodaru, 2016) and "woman as a project" (Savickas et al., 2009;Mavin et al., 2014) provide concepts for women to navigate in the safe space of a coaching session while thinking about their own experiences. Skinner (2014, p. 110) describes the coach as an "enabler of identity formation. ...
Dealing with change and the resulting process of transition is challenging. In today’s workplace, where change and innovation are increasingly a fact of life, too many transitions end in failure, at a high cost to both people and organizations. Interest in the identity work integral to career transition has grown rapidly in recent years and it is now recognized that career transition is more than simply a change in status, salary and role description. It involves social, relational and personal shifts, conscious and unconscious processes, and identity work—agentic, holistic engagement in the shaping and sustaining of who we become. Evidence suggests that specifically addressing identity work in coaching leaders, teams and groups significantly increases the success rate of transitions. And yet topics around identity and identity work are given little prominence in coaching education, leaving many coaches unaware of these basic constructs. This paper presents a new coaching framework, the MAP (Me-As-a-Process) coaching model, to support coaches and their clients as they embark on the process of identity work in voluntary career choices and transitions. It draws on research from my qualitative doctoral study (2021) which identified four stages in the process of women’s identity work in voluntary career change and choice. It synthesizes academic theory, evidence from coaching practice, and findings from 53 women who had recently experienced career choice or change.
... Hence, high performance-based leader identities and behavioral expectations (Walker & Caprar, 2020) may run counter to the disposition to exemplify servant leadership behaviors and assume corresponding servant leader identities. Participants also experienced temporal incoherence, oscillating between intentions to serve and ambitions to lead (Beech, 2010;Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). We speculate that this relates to their strong and intentional desire to lead in service driven by ideas of vocation and calling. ...
... The sharp diminution of CEOs' high work role attachment and salient work role identity creates a void that stimulates entry into a liminal realm of ambiguity. This may evoke negative emotions (Ibarra and Obodaru, 2016), such as lack of purpose and being unsettled, fearful, and depressed. If the role identity reformation is positive, the retiree can attain a greater sense of well-being. ...
Purpose
Following identity theory from a symbolic-interactionist perspective, we explore the post-retirement role identity reformation of public company CEOs to uncover the process elements through which role identities reform after retirement from highly salient roles.
Design/methodology/approach
We applied a self-relevant qualitative exploration based on 30 in-depth interviews and employed an interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Findings
The findings reveal six interrelated, contemporaneous and contiguous underlying process elements within post-retirement liminality and emergence clusters, which shape work and nonwork role identities that contribute to retirement stability and well-being.
Practical implications
The research provides a basis for organizations and human resource specialists to guide retiring senior executives on the psychological effects, cognitive processes and practical considerations of the retirement transition.
Originality/value
The study provides a framework for understanding how the post-retirement void evokes novel appraisals of self, others and context. These appraisals act as stimuli of an integrated cognitive, social and behavioral work role identity reformation process.
... In contrast, transitions to lone and blended parenthood are highlighted as being ambiguous (Braithwaite et al., 2001;Madden-Derdich & Leonard, 2002;Sweeney, 2010). Given that ambiguity is suggested to make constructing a new coherent identity challenging (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016), the implications for the WF identities of lone-parents and blended families are important to consider. For example, Madden-Derdich and Leonard (2002) suggest that lone-mothers and lonefathers find themselves in liminal space, struggling to redefine who they are as both parents and workers following a divorce or separation. ...
This review takes a transdisciplinary approach to work–family (WF) research, offering new perspectives on different family forms in the context of employment. It focuses on lone-parents and blended families, highlighting how management research on the WF interface has been constrained by traditional definitions of ‘family’, assuming intact couple relationships. The review shows that the WF experiences of lone-parents and blended families differ significantly from those of traditional or nuclear families. Our findings demonstrate that blended and lone-parent families struggle with conventional WF policies based on traditional family forms. These families face four main challenges: (1) complex residential arrangements and relationships with co-parents; (2) managing (limited) resources; (3) navigating stigma; and (4) narrow cultural scripts defining family roles. Utilizing cross-domain identity transition theory, we question the traditional ideas at the core of current WF theory. We demonstrate that non-traditional families occupy a ‘liminal’ WF space due to their more fluid parental, occupational and household identities compared to traditional families. We urge employers and policy makers to recognize and address the distinct WF challenges faced by lone-parents and blended families. Employers should develop flexible working policies that accommodate complex residential arrangements and provide resources to support lone and blended family structures. Policy makers should consider revising family leave policies to be more inclusive of diverse family forms. Future research should further explore the diverse experiences of employed parents, including those from LGBTQIA+ communities, using our framework, which encourages researchers to think differently regarding existing WF theories through the consideration of our four themes.
... In literature, liminal spaces-whether physical, temporal, or psychological-are where conventional boundaries dissolve, allowing characters to undergo significant transformations in identity and self (Thomassen, 2009). These spaces, such as unknown territories or otherworldly realms, facilitate self-discovery, redemption, and the renegotiation of personal and social values (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016;Szakolczai, 2009). ...
This article embarks on a comparative analysis to uncover the role of the island as a liminal space in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the television series Lost , exploring its function in facilitating redemption, fantasy, and transformation. The study elucidates how both narratives utilize the island not merely as a setting but as a crucial catalyst for character evolution and thematic depth. Through an examination of geographical, temporal, and psychological dimensions of liminality, the article demonstrates the island’s pivotal role as a space where human complexity, the quest for identity, and aspirations towards redemption unfold. The comparative inquiry highlights narrative and thematic correspondences, underlining the interpretive richness offered by the concept of liminality within literary and media studies. This analysis accentuates the enduring significance of liminal spaces in fostering significant personal and collective transformations, despite disparities in medium and historical context.
... Second, understanding the design and instruction methods employed in WLDPs is essential for delivering programmes that are both relevant and impactful, whilst addressing the unique challenges and needs of women leaders (Eagly and Carli 2007;Martin and Meyerson 1998). Third, assessing the contents of WLDPs enhances our understanding of effective components that facilitate the growth of women leaders, better equipping them with the skills and resources necessary to thrive in their roles (Ibarra and Obodaru 2016). Finally, examining the outcomes of WLDPs provides valuable insights into their efficacy and value. ...
Organisations are recognising that more needs to be done to support female talent. One response to this is women‐only leadership development programmes (WLDPs). To date, no scoping review has previously been conducted to examine the design and outcomes of these programmes. The purpose of the present review was therefore to bring together current knowledge of these interventions. In June 2022, a scoping review of the academic literature was performed using Business Source Premier (EBSCO), PsycINFO and SCOPUS, resulting in 13 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. Findings indicate encouraging signs that these programmes support women's development through incorporating intersectionality and positive psychology theories, as well as curricula on networking, conflict management and career planning. Whilst the specifics about the design and delivered content of these theories are unclear, their inclusion appears to lead participants in the reviewed WLDPs to report increased self‐awareness, clarity of purpose and enhanced feelings of authenticity. This review also raises questions regarding the rigour of the selection methods by which participants are given access to the programmes, and the transparent reporting of the design and delivery methodologies. Further, research directions and implications for both theory and practice are provided.
... Taking into consideration the question of who draws in literature on human development, self-awareness (Newstead, Eva & Day, 2024), and, in particular, self-narratives (stories of the self) and identity (Ibarra & Barbulescu, 2010), where it has been established that humans have a psychological and neurophysiological need to integrate their experiences to form self-narratives that provide a kind of evidential "truth" to an individual (Paivio & Angus, 2017). Whereas the attention to selfnarratives and identity is prevalent in adult learning (Michelson, 2013) and has been applied in organizations (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016), less attention has been given to it in MLE. Individuals can engage in identity work on a daily basis by constructing self-narratives that help them reflect on the past, make sense of the present, and guide decisions that impact their future (McAdams, 2011). ...
... From all these different sources, professional identities may overlap and are subject to change and development over time (Rhoades, 2007). These identities may also come into conflict with one another forcing the instructor to navigate between different ways of self-positioning (Ibarra and Obodaru, 2016). ...
The professional identity of scientists has historically been cultivated to value research over teaching, which can undermine initiatives that aim to reform science education. Course-Based Research Experiences (CRE) and the inclusive Research and Education Communities (iREC) are two successful and impactful reform efforts that integrate research and teaching. The aim of this study is to explicate the professional identity of instructors who implement a CRE within an established iREC and to explore how this identity contributes to the success of these programs. 97 CRE instructors from the Science Education Alliance (SEA) iREC participated in a 2-year, multi-stage, qualitative research project that involved weekly reflective journaling, autoethnographic description, small group evaluation and writing, and large-scale community checking. The resulting description of professional identity consisted of shared values (inclusivity, student success, community membership, ownership/agency, science, overcoming failure, and persistence), specified roles (mentor, advocate, scientist, educator, motivator, collaborator, community builder, learner, evaluator and project manager) and a stated sense of self (dedicated, resilient, pride in students, multiskilled, valued, community member, responsible and overworked). Analysis of individual reflective diary entries revealed how a professional identity underpinned and facilitated the ways in which faculty addressed challenges that arose and worked toward the success of every student. It is the self-concept of the professional identity of the instructor in the context of the CRE classroom that directed the extended commitment and effort that these instructors evidently put into their work with students, which facilitated student engagement, student persistence, and their collective scientific output. The study concludes that a professional identity of STEM faculty in the context of a CRE and iREC combines being a researcher and educator, and that this integrated identity is central for current initiatives aimed at transforming undergraduate STEM education.
... Although the diverse societal backgrounds of our research participants shape their liminality through various lived experiences, or their lived 'in-betweenness' (Ibarra, 2007;Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016;Luborsky, 1994;Newman, 1999), we find that, overall, their liminal positioning allowed them to cherish a more positive identity than they attributed to those being old. This finding seems to be in line with social identity theory and with earlier studies on ageism (Bodner, 2009;Kite & Wagner, 2002;Lev et al., 2018) and offers insight in how the negotiating of social identities plays out in liminal phases and spaces. ...
Our qualitative study, consisting of in-depth semi-structured interviews with recent retirees in the Dutch city of Leiden, set out to investigate how communication, through processes of self-identification and the negotiation of social identities, relates to (self-)ageism. A letter from the city administration was used to make age identification salient in our research and prompted stories of various liminal spaces and phases that our participants experienced. Whilst liminal phases are usually considered uncertain and ambiguous, in our study we found that for older people liminality can offer a desired ambiguity that allowed them to adopt a more positive identity than 'being old', which was rejected as undesirable. Our findings provide insight into the intertwinement of societal, institutional and individual levels of ageism and highlights the necessity of finding and emphasising positive values in being old, since only then positive interpretations of communication can enable processes of positive societal identification.
... New doctors and nurses in our study discussed limited future job, training and career opportunities in the Kenya health system (also see Zhao et al. (2023cZhao et al. ( , 2023a. Reflecting on broader literature on liminal work (Johnsen and Sørensen, 2015;Obodaru and Ibarra, 2016;Ybema et al., 2011), the new doctors and nurses we interviewed described feeling 'stuck' while seeking alternative careers, conveying a sense of permanent liminality continuing after internships into their professional careers. ...
... By counterpoint, employees in a traditional workplace who have ongoing relationships and interactions with coworkers, leaders, and clients that contribute to a work identity. Gig drivers may find it difficult to form meaningful connections or identify role models that can provide important feedback for identity construction (Anicich, 2022;Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). Indeed, gig drivers have emphasized how not having coworkers limits their ability to process and make sense of their unique work experiences (Anicich, 2022). ...
Research has focused on the effects of the organizational setting on work identity. However, platform‐based gig work in particular features challenges to developing a positive work identity, such as high autonomy in the absence of organizational structure, and often the lack of a clear occupational title. We conducted focus groups with platform‐based gig drivers ( N = 53) and analyzed our data with an abductive approach, applying concepts from self‐regulation theories. Our model presents commitment to career success goals as a mechanism linking higher‐order abstract identity and lower‐order concrete task goals. The career success goals that workers prioritize provide the criteria for achieving a positive work identity. Gig drivers desired to attain goal states such as higher earnings and autonomy that may be indicative of career success. Goal prioritization by oneself, given multiple desirable career success goals, could be overwhelming. Yet, compared to traditional workers, independent gig workers are also granted greater freedom to prioritize the career success goals that are perceived as achievable, to protect a positive work identity. Our study thus has implications for identity theory and self‐regulation. We discuss practical implications to support independent workers given how they conceive of career success and positive work identity.
... Liminality has been described through the years as a life process, often with fluid phases but always with an ending (Czarniawska & Mazza, 2003; J. C. Turner et al., 1987). Garcia-Lorenzo et al. (2018) introduced the concept of continuous or enduring liminality for some aspects of self-employment and is supported by other recent works (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016;Willis & Xiao, 2014). This approach aligned closely with the researcher's (EM) sense of her work as a self-employed contractor. ...
Nursing offers multiple career choices in a variety of settings, both clinical and non-clinical. A very small number of registered nurses choose to become self-employed, continuing to work as nurses in non-clinical environments, such as policy. This study aimed to explore the experiences of registered nurses transitioning into, and practising as, solo self-employed contractors within the practice area of professional advice and policy. Thirteen registered nurses participated in this ethnographic qualitative study. Data were collected in 2018, with a specific focus on exploring the transitional elements of nurses as they moved from traditional nursing employment models to being self-employed as contractors, working from home. The findings identified various reasons for this change to self-employment, including as an exit option from a challenging employment situation, feeling ‘burned out’, or searching for a healthier lifestyle. Amid their move to a new way of working they experienced challenges in managing finances and navigating the complex dynamics of profession, home, and their own gendered subjectivities. This novel research offers an insight into the experiences of registered nurses who, at watershed moments in their careers, recognised their agency and chose to shift to solo self-employment, ultimately persisting in a liminal, or transitioning relationship between belonging to nursing and business, home and work.
Te reo Māori translation
Ngā Tapuhi Rēhita i roto i ngā Kaupapa Here: Te noho i waenga pū i te mahi whaiaro me te mahi kirimana
Ngā Ariā Matua
He maha ngā whiringa ara mahi i te ao tapuhi, i te huhua o ngā horopaki, ahakoa taurima tūroro, ahakoa mahi kē. Tērā te rōpū tapuhi rēhita iti kia kōwhiri i te ara mahi whaiaro, kia mahi tonu hei tapuhi i ngā horopaki i waho i te taurima tūroro, pēnei i ngā mahi kaupapa here. Ko te whāinga o tēnei tirohanga he tūhura i ngā wheako o ngā tapuhi rēhita e whakawhiti ana ki te ao mahi o te kirimana mahi whaiaro takitahi, i roto i te wāhanga mahi o te whakamaherehere ngaio me ngā kaupapa here. Tekau mā toru ngā tapuhi rēhita i whai wāhi mai ki tēnei tirohanga kounga momo iwi. I kohia he raraunga i te tau 2018 me te arotahi pū ki te tūhura i ngā āhuatanga whakawhiti o ngā tapuhi, i a rātou e anga kē atu ana i ngā ritenga whiwhinga mahi tuku iho o mua, kia mahi hei kaikirimana mahi takitahi, mahi i te kāinga. Kei ngā kitenga i tohua ētahi take mō tēnei huringa ki te mahi whaiaro, tae atu ki te rapunga putanga ki waho i tētahi wāhi mahi uaua, te whakaaro ‘kua whati te tuarā’, te rapunga ara mahi hauora kē atu rānei. I roto i ā rātou ahunga ki ēnei tikanga mahi hou, i tūpono rātou ki ngā uauatanga whakahaere moni, whakatere hoki i te ao umanga, ao o te kāinga, me te kawe anō i ō rātou tuakiri ira tangata. Tā tēnei rangahau hou he tāpae māramatanga mō ngā wheako o ētahi tapuhi rēhita i kōwhiri i te ara mana motuhake whaiaro, i tētahi pekanga nui o te huarahi, arā, kia hīkoi i te ara mahi whaiaro takitahi, me te noho i tētahi ao whakawhiti i waenga i te mahi tapuhi, i te pakihi, i te kāinga me te mahi.
Ngā kupu matua
mana motuhake, mātai momo iwi, tū ā-whakawhiti, mahi whaiaro, tapuhi, kaupapa here, whakawhitinga
... Liminality theory provides a framework for analyzing these disruptions: from changes in a person's identity, sense of social belonging, or workplace (Bamber, Allen-Collinson, and McCormack 2017;Ybema, Beech, and Ellis 2011) to rapid economic or cultural changes across a given society (Thomassen 2009). Liminal contexts can both present the opportunity for positive change and identity growth (Ibarra and Obodaru 2016) or cause feelings of ambiguity, anxiety (Dhar and Boyatzis 2023), and uncertainty (Dauphin et al. 2020). ...
Farming is a stressful occupation with many farmers facing daily uncertainty and high mental health risks. In addition to unpredictable occupations, rapidly changing European and Irish agricultural policies may put farmers in a liminal state. We aimed to identify sources of occupational stress or well‐being for Irish farmers, particularly regarding change in their lives and communities. We collected data online through semistructured interviews with 17 farmers and 1 interview and 3 focus groups with 11 farming stakeholders. We identified four central narratives (N1‐4) through narrative analysis. In N1, participants described how rapid changes could create stress by exacerbating uncertainty and threatening farmers' financial security. Participants described how these changes to standards for “good farming” (N2) and rural culture (N3) result in lost income, identity, and well‐being. In N4, participants identified ways in which work of farming can be therapeutic. Our findings add to literature on the impacts of uncertainty and liminality on farmers by identifying how deeply changes in agricultural models can impact farmers' identities and well‐being as they grapple with new and old occupational pressures. We suggest that economic policy and agricultural governance prioritize farmers' financial security and mental health through policy change and acknowledge their valuable contributions.
... While they deidentified from their past work identity, their current alternative career roles are not fully acceptable to them either. Their pathway can also be described as liminal; while in flux, they may have "unlearned" established identities, but they have not yet adopted new ways of being (Beech, 2022;Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). They are also not bothered by the lack of continuity to their past roles, as they seek to create new meanings in the alternative future roles. ...
... Yet, their subjective experience of living in between career chapters (i.e., early and mid-career) may continue to make them view their own organizational position as "liminal" until they reach what they consider the ideal career stage. Ibarra and Obodaru (2016) recognized that subjective and objective liminal states do not always coincide, which can involve intense feelings "long before LIMINALITY IN DUAL SOCIALIZATION 8 any concrete possibility for change begins to materialize, if at all" (p. 51). ...
Early career professionals actively seek career advancement opportunities while undergoing socialization within their organizations. This study employs the concept of liminality to examine their experience of in-betweenness in dual socialization—simultaneous organizational socialization and vocational/organizational anticipatory socialization for the next career chapter. We conducted repeat interviews with 22 U.S. early career professionals (n = 65), employed full-time. This longitudinal study uncovers how participants construct liminality as either a planned or an emergent phase; factors contributing to their discursive tension in liminality over time; and how they communicatively manage the tension to move forward. We propose a refined model of socialization [Jablin, F. (2001). Organizational entry, assimilation, and exit. In F. Jablin & L. Putnam (Eds.), The new handbook of organizational communication (pp. 732–818). Sage], which integrates liminality as a phase in which individuals feel neither fully “in” nor “out” of their organization. This enhanced model theorizes dual socialization as dynamic and interconnected processes through permeable organizational boundaries, addressing the contemporary career landscape with an increasing number and types of employment options.
... Organization Studies has recognized how liminality can be a permanent state for some in organizations (e.g., consultancy work in between organizational structures, Johnsen & Sørensen, 2015) and indicative of precarious and fluctuating careers (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). ...
This study addresses the lack of research into social processes of competition in organizations and explores women leaders self-positioning in relation to the discourses of gendered competition and neoliberal competition. The discourses carry contradictory obligations for women. While the gendered competition discourse socially punishes competitive women, the neoliberal competition discourse expects competition. Through a feminist approach and Critical Discourse Analysis of narratives from 52 women leaders we make two central contributions. First, we outline how the two discourses jostle together, fighting for attention and contradicting each other, provoking social ambiguity. We demonstrate how the women leaders adopt paradoxical self-positioning as ‘competitive - not competitive’ using four interconnected strategies of ‘Denying’, ‘Masking and Reframing’, ‘Moving On’ from, and ‘Diverting’ competition. Second, we extend studies of liminality and theorize how the discourses create liminality for women leaders. We elucidate how the women take up and disrupt the discourses by continually oscillating in-between paradoxical positions of being competitive, perceived as competitive, not competitive, no longer competitive, and competitive for organizations. Competition is identified as a toxic, gendered process, which is both harmful and aspirational, and both a liminal challenge and opportunity for women leaders. We extend understandings of those who experience liminality in organizations, to women leaders and demonstrate how their paradoxical self-positioning affords them opportunities to discursively present as competitive.
... Workers often inhabit 'in-between spaces', between work roles, organizations, and career paths (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). Research also refers to fragmented careers (Blaising et al., 2021) and high career path uncertainty (Caza et al., 2022). ...
Online freelancing, an alternative form of work where independent workers offer services on digital labor platforms, gains increasing importance in IS research. While the general understanding of this form of work is growing, research lacks understanding careers on digital labor platforms. However, these differ from careers in offline labor markets due to volatility, global matching and platform mediation, the digital and temporary nature of work, and algorithmic management as particular platform working conditions. Therefore, to understand how working conditions on digital labor platforms influence the dynamic career paths of freelancers, we conduct an exploratory analysis using 35 interviews with freelancers and clients on digital labor platforms. We thus contribute to the body of knowledge on alternative forms of work on digital labor platforms by developing a long‐term freelancing career model and outlining the dynamics of advancement, decline, and exit within platform careers. We also illustrate mechanisms between career phases in terms of platform lock‐in effects, which arise from the career advancement dynamics and career exit dynamics.
... Sementara menurut Bastomi dan Sudaryanti (2022), meskipun dipengaruhi secara dominan oleh efikasi diri, minat berwirausaha juga dipengaruhi oleh variabel lain seperti focus of control, kecerdasan menghadapi kesulitan, motivasi spiritual, dan religiusitas (Bastomi & Sudaryanti, 2022). Perilaku atau karakteristik individu dapat dipengaruhi oleh aspek kontekstual, seperti lingkungan, organisasi atau tempat individu berada (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). ...
p>Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat peran Pesantren dalam mendorong minat santri untuk berwirausaha. Metode analisis yang digunakan adalah Structural Equation Modeling Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) dengan menggunakan Hierarchical Component Models (HCM), dimana variabel dukungan pesantren dan karakter wirausaha sebagai upper construct memiliki beberapa subdimensinya masing-masing. Jumlah sampel yang digunakan yaitu sebanyak 119. Hasil penelitian ini menemukan bahwa dukungan pesantren dan karakter wirausaha berpengaruh positif terhadap minat wirausa. Dukungan pesantren dapat mempengaruhi karakter wirausaha santri, sehingga penelitian ini menemukan adanya pengaruh tidak langsung dari dukungan pesantren tehadap minat berwirausaha melalui karakter wirausaha. Hasil penelitian ini diharapkan dapat digunakan sebagai referensi dalam menyusun kerangka program pengembangan minat berwirausaha santri di Pesantren.
This research aims to investigate the role of Islamic boarding schools (Pesantren) in influencing the entrepreneurial interest of students (santri). The analytical approach employed in this study is Structural Equation Modeling Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) utilizing the Hierarchical Component Models (HCM) framework. In this framework, the variables of Pesantren support and entrepreneurial characteristics, as the upper-level constructs, encompass several respective sub-dimensions. The sample size used for the study comprises 119 participants. The findings reveal that both Pesantren support and entrepreneurial characteristics have a positive impact on entrepreneurial interest. Specifically, Pesantren support can influence the entrepreneurial characteristics of the students. Thus, this study identifies an indirect influence of Pesantren support on entrepreneurial interest through the mediation of entrepreneurial characteristics. The outcomes of this research are expected to serve as a valuable reference for devising a framework for the development of entrepreneurial interest among students within the Pesantren. </p
This paper explores the triggers and identity crucibles facing professional doctorate students pursuing a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA). Unlike prior research, which centres on full‐time PhD students, our study examines the identity work of DBA students, many of whom do not foresee a transition to academia. Through 35 semi‐structured interviews, we explore the identity work involved in ‘becoming a doctor’ and the identity crucibles that DBA students encounter. We identify the internal and external triggers that lead to identity work and identity crucibles, with their accompanying emotions, and examine how these crucibles are resolved. This research develops current thinking in critical management education, revealing how DBA students do not uniformly aspire to become practitioner‐scholars or academics. Instead, they start and end their doctoral studies from various and different identity positions, highlighting the complexity of these long, intellectually challenging programmes. By exploring the triggers, identity crucibles and resolutions, this study offers a nuanced understanding of the DBA student experience and provides valuable insights into how these individuals can be supported throughout their doctoral studies. This support enhances retention and completion rates for those tasked with managing these programmes and reduces the likelihood of losing exceptional scholars/practitioners.
The in-between space ignites learning as individuals journey from dependence on the institution to independence from the institution. This space has hitherto been holistically undefined in the context of higher arts education. The study aims to explore such experiences within the lifeworld of student scholars in the fields of arts and design. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis, this study unravels emotional and mental states of being in-between at a higher education arts institution in Singapore. The findings highlight freedom, courage, disillusionment, discomfort, imposter syndrome, and feeling burn-out. Multiple engagements in the space in-between show a purposeful letting go of uncertainties for the sake of embracing ambiguities. This state fosters playful learning, exploration, creativity and innovation. Caught between one state and another, individuals experience different states of being at each stage of learning, which can be disempowering. Yet, individuals embrace the in-between space as a natural part of the journey in transformative learning. The results evince that being in-between was accepted as a necessary part of learning towards professionalism in the arts. The paper concludes with practical implications on how expanding a locus of learning experiences beyond the university can inform curriculum futures in higher education.
The gender gaps in career outcomes (e.g., pay, promotion, leadership opportunities) observably widen during mid-career, yet research often neglects considerations of gendered age identities in explaining this disparity. The present paper addresses this through an integrative review of interdisciplinary literature and proposes a novel theoretical framework that combines midlife development and gender identity negotiations to better understand mid-career disparities. In this review, we (1) adopt an inter-categorical approach to explore how workers navigate the overlapping systems of gender and age in the workplace, (2) critically review midlife development literature, highlighting significant oversights in organizational research, and (3) we introduce a process model of midlife gendered identity negotiations. We detail the model, describing the antecedents, mechanisms, and outcomes of gendered aging identity negotiations on mid-career inequities. We provide a foundation for advancing research and designing interventions to address gender disparities in mid-career outcomes.
We adopt a visual methods approach, in conjunction with an interview-based study, to investigate the identity work of creative workers who sell their services remotely as online freelancers via gig economy platforms. Based on visual self-portrayals elicited from 53 remote gig workers, including illustrators, animators and graphic designers, and their subsequent verbal reflections on these images, our study elucidates the generative power of visual images for gaining insights into identity work, especially in non-traditional work contexts facilitated by digital technologies. We distinguish key identity work strategies that remote gig workers use to construct their identities in relation to idealized, publicly available and free-floating imaginaries of platform labour. These strategies ranged from fully embracing such imaginaries to their vehement rejection, as well as strategies aimed at maintaining a balance between these extremes. Besides the embodied, sensorial intensities and imaginative projections underpinning such identity construction in the gig economy, our analysis foregrounds also the spatial aspects of identity work. Theoretically, we propose a redefinition of identity work as a multimodal accomplishment rather than exclusively a narrative one to better explain the elusive and contradictory aspects of identity work, including its affective and spatial character.
This chapter delves into the under-explored dimensions of Greek gig workers’ agency in the contemporary labor landscape. Grounded in an interpretative paradigm, the study used semi-structured interviews to capture the narratives of gig economy workers. The study focuses on understanding personal perceptions within this work environment and examines how gig workers navigate between autonomy, precarity, and a sense of belonging. In the Greek gig economy, where traditional structures are often lacking, participants mentioned unique challenges in cultivating a strong sense of belonging. The chapter uncovers the relationship between autonomy and the need for connection, highlighting moments of isolation and the trade-offs that characterise gig work. Additionally, our findings underscore the impact of precarity on gig workers’ well-being, with financial stability emerging as a critical factor influencing the sense of belonging. The lack of national strategies, legal interventions primarily focused on tax issues, and limited trade union involvement contribute to the complexities of gig workers’ experiences in Greece. The study concludes by discussing the implications for policy and future research, emphasising the need for comprehensive approaches that address job growth and the well-being of gig workers.
Graduating from college is widely associated with social and personal advancement, yet many young graduates are not experiencing these benefits. Drawing on 127 interviews with college graduates in the United States and Spain who face employment precarity or economic instability, this study asks: How do these graduates understand their social positions and worth? How does the institution of higher education shape these understandings? The data demonstrate that respondents in both countries largely describe themselves as stalled or stuck. I argue that these are perceptions of “expectational liminality” stemming from the disjuncture between respondents’ expectations and their experiences as college graduates. In addition, I show how three narratives describing the professional/financial success, life course progression, and internal transformation expected of graduates shape respondents’ sense of expectational liminality. I discuss the effects of higher education on graduates’ self-perceptions in uncertain contexts and the relevance of expectational liminality to other contexts where there are disjunctures between expectations and reality.
In this paper, we entwine sympathetic concepts of liminality and workplace identity to capture processual, agential and emotional elements of transition for established professionals from other sectors taking up academic careers in a digitised UK business school. We undertake interpretative analysis of explicit and latent responses through three core themes exploring processes of transition, agencies of transition and emotions of transition through anonymised interviews conducted with 15 participants coming in from a variety of industrial and service roles. With a rationale of better understanding barriers and ambiguities experienced during times of transition, the paper considers perceptions of ambiguity and flux experienced by those undertaking second careers in the context of marketised higher education, arguing that coming in from a profession is complex and unsettling. The paper argues for greater institutional focus on improving perceptions of belonging, valorisation and recognition for those negotiating the ritual and contested space of transition, particularly in light of increasing collaboration between academia and practice and growing student numbers in this space. It concludes that in the light of continued policy decisions embracing rapid growth in apprenticeship and other practice‐based degree programmes, university managers need active strategies to retain and develop those from industry and other professional backgrounds.
Death is a well-established metaphor for how individuals experience and cope with change: from organisational restructuring to job loss. However, the critical potential of death metaphors, particularly relating to job loss and unemployment, has not been fully realised. Drawing on dialogues between long-term unemployed men and their case workers at a Work Club in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, this article addresses a lack of theorisation of situated relational jobseeker resistance. Interpreting these experiences through Bakhtin’s concept of death–rebirth, metaphorical death can be understood as a feeling induced by stigmatising unemployment discourse. Rebirth represents the temporary resistance of this death through carnivalesque laughter, parody and grotesque humour. It is concluded that the men resist the stigma of blame for their own unemployment by using humorous carnivalesque reversals between death and rebirth as a form of relational jobseeker resistance.
What is gender gapping? We know of the gender pay gap, however, what factors are at the heart of this gap and other gender-based gaps in music? Systemic male domination, white supremacy and broadly, a music industry designed by white males within a society built upon a foundation of inequality should present no drastic surprise to our ‘still poor’ gender balance in UK music and beyond. There are gaps that relate to the space and time that women devote to child rearing and gaps that are apparent when considering the representation of women (versus men) in the music industries. Such ‘gender gapping’ can be used as a conceptual framework to discuss gender inequality in our music industries today. These gaps live not in isolation but as a connected system in which ‘mothering’ should be considered a key area of concern. In my recent PhD research on mothering and freelance music-making in Scotland, the theme of ‘sacred spaces’ emerged. Creative mental and liminal spaces were identified as ‘crucial’ to the participants. Music-making mothers presented a sense of struggle and juggle to actively participate in the music industries without it. Thus, what is it about the current music industries ‘structures’ that limits women’s participation and what support is available to truly promote and enable gender equality for the future?
When in 1998, the historic Belfast/Good Friday Agreement marked the end of the 30-year violent Northern Ireland conflict often referred to as the ‘Troubles’, many commentators regarded it as the culmination of the life’s work of one man: John Hume. Hume was seen by many as a man of peace, but for others he was a trojan horse for violent Irish nationalism. This paper explores these contradictions through the lens of liminality and argues that central to Hume’s ability to create change in a schismogentic environment of conflict was his own ‘inbetweenness’: a leader of nationalism, but not a nationalist, a believer in non-violence, who engaged actively with men of violence, an MP elected to a British parliament, who worked hand in hand with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. In doing so it proposes a typology of five liminal leadership approaches which allowed for the untangling of the conflict over time: Reframing the Problem; Stakeholder Cultivation; Opening Linguistic Space; Practicing Disruption; and Acceptance of Sacrifice. This paper makes three contributions: to our understanding of leaders who inhabit and utilise liminal spaces, to leadership approaches in zero sum environments including those riven by ‘wicked’ conflicts, and to an understanding of Hume himself and his legacy.
In the field of social work research and practice, considerable focus has been placed on the preparedness of students as they transition from being students to becoming professionals. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the processes that occur during the final academic year of their training—a critical transition period that requires a deeper examination. Using a qualitative approach, the study examined the phenomenological perspectives of twenty-nine social work students at an Israeli university during the final academic year of their bachelor’s degree, employing the photovoice methodology. Content analysis of the results identified four key characteristics of the final academic year: (1) the liminal-transitional nature of identity work during the final year; (2) separation from the student identity; (3) the doorknob effect; and (4) entering the professional shoes. The research results are discussed and conceptualised within the framework of the theory of liminality, highlighting its relevance to understanding the transition processes that characterise professional identity work. Additionally, the study explores the implications of liminality in preparing students for entering the job market, particularly considering the distinction between being a professional and becoming a professional.
While the unique socioeconomic conditions of the Global South have created opportunities for women to work in rural development nonprofits, obstacles exist in the form of gendered social expectations. This study examines the experiences of women professionals working in rural development nonprofits who live in the liminality between “ideal professional identity” and “traditional caregiving identity.” We conducted in-depth interviews with 21 women professionals working in nonprofits in seven states of India. Our findings suggest that women professionals experience constant guilt in the liminality due to the conflicting obligations of caregiving and professional worker identities and their inability to justify both. We discuss how they use various performative practices and identity work, and sometimes engage in patriarchal bargaining to resolve the struggles arising from the conflicting obligations. Our study adds to the scarce research on women in the Global South working in rural development nonprofits and also discusses its practical organizational implications.
Introduction
The shortage of educators within Health Professions Education (HPE) threatens the optimal training of the future health care workforce. Furthermore, without recruitment of diverse and skilled faculty, targets to expand the workforce will not be possible. Non‐practising health care professionals offer extensive knowledge and qualifications within health care, without the competing clinical commitments of their clinical academic colleagues, and therefore are ideally positioned to support education and training initiatives. However, the limited available evidence suggests that these individuals face significant challenges transitioning from clinical to academic roles. The purpose of this scoping review is to address the research question ‘What is known about the career experiences of non‐practicing healthcare professionals (defined as individuals with clinical backgrounds who no longer engage in direct patient care) across various professions and internationally, within the field of health professions education?’. To do so, we aim to map the global experiences of non‐practising health care professionals from different specialties and disciplines transitioning to HPE, with a view to both current support strategies that aim to recruit and retain these individuals and fuel future research in this area.
Methods
Following Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review guidelines, a research question was formulated focussing on exploring the career experiences of non‐practising health care professionals now working in HPE. Searching seven literature databases and grey literature identified 51 articles for analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were utilised to chart and thematically analyse data to identify key themes.
Results
There has been a rise in publications on this topic, with most studies originating from the United States and focusing on nursing. Transition to academia is marked by significant challenges, including identity shifts, renumeration and professional progression tensions, licencing issues and financial concerns. Support systems are crucial to navigating new roles alongside personal/professional development but often lacking.
Discussion
This scoping review highlights challenges and opportunities for non‐practising health care professionals in HPE. Additional support for making the transition to education, including structured onboarding processes and long‐term mentoring relationships, would be beneficial. Recognising the liminal space these professionals occupy might also facilitate more effective integration into academic roles, contributing to a more dynamic and inclusive HPE environment. Future research should explore these experiences from broader professional and geographical perspectives and employ an intersectional approach to fully understand and support this growing demographic in our field.
This paper aims to provide an inductive exercise on work identity and transitions for management educators to use with adult learners. The exercise leverages Ibarra’s work identity theory and Schlossberg’s transitions theory and has proven effective in helping graduate students and working professionals consider the relationship between transitions and identity. Additionally, this exercise is particularly useful for facilitating a mindfulness practice in the context of identity workspaces (i.e., the management classroom) where participants are invited into identity development. As a result, students will learn to navigate their own transitions more mindfully and develop a praxis to better support themselves and others in the process of change.
The purpose of this study is to use a positive psychology lens to broaden and refine our understanding of professional development experiences, and to construct a practical, but evidence-based framework for a developmental human resource management (HRM) system. Study 1 uses focus group interviews with 18 full-time professionals enrolled in a management education program to explore experiences that are likely to strengthen and clarify one's aspirational future professional identity, or the ideal self. In study 2, two separate professional samples ( N = 204, 271) are used for measurement development and hypotheses testing. Overall, the two studies show that 15 specific development experiences are particularly helpful in the formation of a clear and motivating ideal self for professionals in a wide variety of industries. As a practical application of the findings, a framework for a Developmental HRM System is proposed.
Purpose
The transition from medical student to practicing physician affects the complex processes of professional identity formation and professionalism, which have a lasting effect on the physician's career development. This study explored two different transitional processes of medical students in Taiwan, the associated rituals during this transitional period (the ‘liminal phase’) and their effect on the formation of professional identity.
Method
Using snowball sampling, we recruited 13 medical students from two training systems: six from the traditional postgraduate year programme and seven from the accelerated postgraduate year (A‐PGY) programme. Semi‐structured interviews were thematically analysed to identify significant themes that encapsulated trainees' experiences. A consistent and mutually confirmed discussion ensured the identification of robust recurring themes.
Results
A comparative analysis of the two training modalities provided critical insights into the relative impact of the training dynamics. The A‐PGY cohort, subjected to an altered ‘incorporation’ ritual, encountered an influx of unexpected symbolic social power, complicating their transformation within the liminal phase. Without a defined internship like in the PGY system, A‐PGY trainees exhibited confusion and inconsistencies in professional identity formation marked by conflicting internal and external perceptions. This ambiguity affected their clinical training, social integration and overall development of professionalism. The absence of a structured, sequential liminal phase increased conflict and diminished motivation, culminating in an incomplete self‐crafting journey for A‐PGY trainees.
Conclusions
This study highlights the impact of the well‐sequenced implementation of rituals in liminality on professional identity formation. A good transition training programme for medical students should compass sequential rituals in the liminal phase, including clear starting and ending points, supervision by seniors, guided reflection and plenty of opportunities for observation and imitation in context. Optimal training and pivotal elements in a medical training system warrant delicate design and further research when developing and changing the structure of the training programme.
Currently, in Ireland, there is a high rate of attrition among newly qualified student nurses. This paper specifically seeks to provide insights into this issue through an exploration of the experiences and perceptions of clinical placement from a sample of student nurses and preceptors in Ireland through the conceptual lenses of both incidental learning and liminality. We conclude that the power of incidental learning on students transversing a liminal space should not be underestimated and that in our study the surrounding context of support (particularly from preceptors) was critical. Incidental learning around aspects of organization culture and hierarchy that caused dissonance for students emerged as a consistent outcome. So too did time and resource pressure on preceptors due to staffing shortages which, in turn, impacted negatively on workplace learning opportunities beyond routine incidental learning and support available to students to constructively make sense of their experiences. We argue that results from this study can inform not just nurse education but may also give pause for thought to those responsible for professions which have substantial work placement aspects as part of their qualifying route such as apprenticeships.
W niniejszym artykule zaproponowano nowe spojrzenie na organizacje nieformalne, a mianowicie przez pryzmat koncepcji liminalności stworzonej na gruncie antropologii przez Arnolda van Gennepa oraz Victora Turnera. Opierając się na analizie studium przypadku Ogólnopolskiego Strajku Kobiet oraz literatury przedmiotu, zdefiniowano pojęcie organizacji liminalnej. Mianem tym określa się szczególny sposób organizowania, który intencjonalnie konstruowany jest z zamiarem wywołania i wzmocnienia procesów liminalnych doświadczanych przez ludzi, którzy uczestniczą w podejmowanych przez nią działaniach. W tym celu osoby współtworzące organizację liminalną sięgają do szeregu narzędzi i metod zarządzania, które mają wzmacniać jej transformacyjny charakter.
Background
The objective of this paper is to develop a map of the contours of the phenomenon of the career transition of women by aggregating, parsing, and extracting scholarly studies on the career transition of women to provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic. A review of existing research will help to identify gaps and opportunities for further investigation in the domain of career transitions for women. It can also provide insights into the experiences of women at different stages of their careers, including those who are entering the workforce, returning to work after a break, or changing careers.
Aim
This study reviews the literature on the career transition of women using bibliometric analysis and thematic analysis. It delves into the most significant writings, leading journals, and authors that contributed to the field, and the selected methodologies and research contexts for mindfulness in leadership.
Methods
The study has identified areas of future research such as the impact of technology and automation on career transitions for women, the intersectionality of career transitions, the role of mentorship and sponsorship in career transitions, the impact of flexible working arrangements on career transitions and personal characteristics and successful transitions.
Results
Using bibliometric analysis, this study especially carried out performance analysis and scientific mapping of the available literature review to provide valuable insights into the challenges and barriers that women face during career transitions.
Conclusion
The findings indicate that despite progress in gender equality, women still encounter significant obstacles when attempting to advance their careers, switch industries, or take on leadership roles.
Although socialization is explicitly about preparing newcomers for the future, time plays only a backstage role in most models and studies. To help move time to the front stage, six issues are discussed. First, the distinction between clock time and event time suggests that learning and adjustment are "lumpy" in that they are often prompted by a series of events. Second, the rate of learning and adjustment are strongly influenced by temporally oriented individual differences, the difficulty of transitioning from one's former role to one's current role, and various features of the work context. Third, the rate is also strongly influenced by socialization processes enacted by the organization (socialization tactics) and newcomers (proactivity). Fourth, time lags, the duration of effects, the relative stability of learning and adjustment, and evolving newcomer needs are considered. Fifth, the increasing need for "swift socialization" is recognized, along with how organizations are addressing this need. Finally, prescriptions are offered for when and how often to measure socialization dynamics.
University culture is increasingly being infl uenced by globalization, competition, the commercialization of research, and external demands for accountability. Corporate managerial practices that value individualism and productivity bump up against more democratic and col-laborative practices inherent in the traditional academic culture and governance. Tensions result as faculty members are left on their own to make sense of the shifting political, economic and social landscape of higher education and to understand the implications for their professional identity within their Faculty. In an unstable institutional culture that lacks rules or mechanisms to shepherd faculty through this process, individuals can feel anxious, confused or incompetent as they negotiate the contradictions in their professional lives and deal with issues of power and resistance. Grounded in their own experiences of liminality, this paper uses an autoethnographic approach to explore and describe the experiences of three academic women " betwixt and between " their senior management positions, taking up positions as academic members of a Faculty, and the strategies they used to support each other, to reconstruct their professional identities and to understand the norms of the Faculty culture. The paper speaks to the importance of post-heroic forms of leadership , dialogue and collaborative communities that contribute to the creation of a culture in which faculty members can fl ourish.
Through a six-year qualitative study of medical residents, we build theory about professional identity construction. We found that identity construction was triggered by work-identity integrity violations: an experienced mismatch between what physicians did and who they were. These violations were resolved through identity customization processes (enriching, patching, or splinting), which were part of interrelated identity and work learning cycles. Implications of our findings (e.g., for member identification) for both theory and practice are discussed.
Changes in organizational structures, logics and employment practices in the media industries – critically the outsourcing of labour, whereby employees become freelance workers – supply an ideal context in which to explore the extent to which, and the ways in which, ideological and structural pressures encourage workers to accept the logic and imperatives of enterprise. An important and influential body of literature identifies the ‘enterprising self ’ as a central paradigmatic concept underpinning the rationale of new, alternative, work forms and relationships. And enterprising forms or logics of organization, or of organizational employment practices and relationships are closely associated with management pressures on workers (contract freelance workers or permanent employees) to accept enterprise as a major element of their self-identities.This study of media workers contributes to the debate about the ‘enterprising self ’. Many writers have noted that workers in the enterprise economy are exposed to systemic efforts to see themselves in terms of enterprise. But relatively little work has explored how workers respond to these efforts.The findings of this study reveal the various ways in which freelance workers make sense of enterprise and how they understand themselves, and their employment experiences in terms of enterprise.
Through our grounded theory qualitative research, we explore how women begin to construct and react to images of possible multiple selves as professionals and mothers during the liminal period of pregnancy. Our study makes a contribution to identity transition scholarship by introducing and exploring the intricacies of cross-domain identity transitions, which we define as those identity transitions that occur when an individual's established work identity must be adapted to be integrated with a change in a nonwork identity (e.g., becoming a mother). Our work also contributes to workfamily scholarship by demonstrating how women begin to experience and address inherent conflicts and enrichments between their maternal and professional identities during pregnancy, long before a child is born. We do so by demonstrating how organizational and personal context color the vision a woman builds of her possible multiple selves as mother and professional.
The experience of simultaneously positive and negative orientations toward a person, goal, task, idea, and such appears to be quite common in organizations, but it is poorly understood. We develop a multilevel perspective on ambivalence in organizations that demonstrates how this phenomenon is integral to certain cognitive and emotional processes and important outcomes. Specifically, we discuss the organizational triggers of ambivalence and the cognitive and emotional mechanisms through which ambivalence diffuses between the individual and collective levels of analysis. We offer an integrative framework of major responses to highly intense ambivalence (avoidance, domination, compromise, and holism) that is applicable to actors at the individual and collective levels. The positive and negative outcomes associated with each response, and the conditions under which each is most effective, are explored. Although ambivalence is uncomfortable for actors, it has the potential to foster growth in the actor as well as highly adaptive and effective behavior.
Based on fieldwork conducted at the outset of the 2008 economic downturn, this paper examines the experiences of a group of unemployed managers and professionals in their fifties. Following a review of existing literature, the authors use a narrative methodology to explore how these people incorporate the experience of job loss into their self-images and identities. They identify certain core similarities in the experiences of unemployed professionals and then discern three narrative strategies through which unemployed professionals tried to make sense of their dismissal and sustain their sense of selfhood. The term 'narrative coping' is proposed as a way of describing each unemployed professional's struggle to construct a story that offers both meaning and consolation. The study reveals that individuals expressing the most profound despair (those for whom job loss was the 'end of the line') were those whose stories had achieved 'closure'. By contrast, most of those who maintained more open-ended narratives were better able to contain their emotions, either by holding on to the belief that unemployment was a temporary career aberration or by abandoning the idea that life is the same as career and by moving on to a new stage of experimentation and bricolage akin to an identity moratorium.
The concept of multiplicity describes the fluid nature of identity and experience in the wake of postmodernity. Yet the question of how we negotiate and maintain our identities, despite our multiplicities, requires phenomenological clarification. I suggest that recognition of multiplicity needs to be combined with an acknowledgement of continuity, however minimal. I maintain that this continuity is evidenced in our pre-reflective self-awareness, embodiment and habitual activities. Our authorship of life narratives and our ability to deliberate and shape our identities takes place against the background of our lived, prereflective experience. I develop the notion of prereflective self-awareness using the work of Sartre, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty. I suggest that prereflective self-awareness, embodiment and habitual activity are themselves shaped by our participation in sociocultural frameworks that give meaning to our lives.
We introduce social networks theory and methods as a way of understanding mentoring in the current career context. We first introduce a typology of "developmental networks" using core concepts from social networks theory-network diversity and tie strength-to view mentoring as a multiple relationship phenomenon. We then propose a framework illustrating factors that shape developmental network structures and offer propositions focusing on the developmental consequences for individuals having different types of developmental networks in their careers. We conclude with strategies both for testing our propositions and for researching multiple developmental relationships further.
Problematic organizational relationships have recently been at the core of highly visible media coverage. Most analyses of sexual relations in organizations have been, however, simplistic and unidimensional, and have placed insufficient systematic emphasis on the role of governmentality in the social construction of organizational romance. In this article, we proceed in two theoretical steps. First, we elaborate a typology of organizational romance that covers different manifestations of this nuanced process. We think of these as organizational strategies of governmentality. Second, we elaborate and identify liminal cases that fall into the interstices of the four predominant ways of managing sexual relationships in organizations. We think of these as vases of liquid love and life that evade the border controls of regulation by governmentality. Finally, we relate these issues to debates about the nature of the civilizational process and suggest hypotheses for future research
Identities, people's subjectively construed understandings of who they were, are and desire to become, are implicated in, and thus key to understanding and explaining, almost everything that happens in and around organizations. The research contribution that this review paper makes is threefold. First, it analyses the often employed but rarely systematically explored concept ‘identity work’, and argues that it is one metaphor among many that may be useful in the analysis of professional and more generally work identities. Second, it focuses on five fundamental, interconnected debates in contemporary identities research centred on notions of choice, stability, coherence, positivity and authenticity. Third, it outlines the roles that the concept ‘identity work’ may play in bridging levels of analysis and disciplinary boundaries, and sketches some possible future identities-focused ideas for further research. Under-specification has meant that ‘identity’ has not always fulfilled its analytical promise in either theoretical explorations of identities issues or in empirical studies of identities in practice; and it is to these ends that this paper seeks to contribute.
In this paper, we develop a process model of trajectory shifts in institutional entrepreneurship. We focus on the liminal periods experienced by institutional entrepreneurs when they, unlike the rest of the organization, recognize limits in the present and seek to shift a familiar past into an unfamiliar and uncertain future. Such periods involve a situation where the new possible future, not yet fully formed, exists side-by-side with established innovation trajectories. Trajectory shifts are moments of truth for institutional entrepreneurs, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms of how entrepreneurs reflectively deal with liminality to conceive and bring forth new innovation trajectories. Our in-depth case study research at CarCorp traces three such mechanisms (reflective dissension, imaginative projection, and eliminatory exploration) and builds the basis for understanding the liminality of trajectory shifts. The paper offers theoretical implications for the institutional entrepreneurship literature.
Organizations are prone to ego defenses, such as denial, rationalization,
idealization, fantasy, and symbolization, that maintain collective self-esteem and the
continuity of existing identity. These defenses are dysfunctional when they militate against
necessary organizational change. Maladaptive identity defense mechanisms can be
mitigated through processes of organizational learning in the form of critical self-reflexivity
and an identity-focused dialogue, which promote attitudes of wisdom.
Through an inductive, qualitative study, I developed a process model of how people deal with professional identities they have forgone by choice or constraint. I show that, when forgone professional identities are linked to unfulfilled values, people look for ways to enact them and retain them in the self-concept. I further identify three strategies that people use to enact foregone professional identities: (1) real enactment (i.e., enacting the forgone identity through real activities and social interactions either at work or during leisure time), (2) imagined enactment (i.e., enacting the forgone identity through imagined activities and interactions, either in an alternate present or in the future), and (3) vicarious enactment (i.e., enacting the forgone identity by observing and imagining close others enacting it and internalizing these experiences). These findings expand our conceptualization of professional identity beyond identities enacted through activities and interactions that are part of formal work roles, and illuminate the key role of imagination and vicarious experiences in identity construction and maintenance.
This paper examines the use of alcohol consumption to provide support for students during transitions at a key liminal stage. We explore some of the positive experiences and rituals surrounding alcohol consumption via student-led focus groups. Our findings suggest that this extended period of liminality is often experienced positively, lending students 'permission' to behave in ways they might otherwise consider unacceptable. Liminality helps us to understand this context of students 'betwixt and between' different important life stages, whereby alcohol assumes an important facilitating role enabling them to play with their identity.
The primary purpose of this article is to clarify the nature of the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) construct and to propose a contingency framework for investigating the relationship between EO and firm performance. We first explore and refine the dimensions of EO and discuss the usefulness of viewing a firm's EO as a multidimensional construct. Then, drawing on examples from the EO-related contingencies literature, we suggest alternative models (moderating effects, mediating effects, independent effects, interaction effects) for testing the EO-performance relationship.
Although historically ambivalence has been treated as something to be avoided or resolved, we argue that research increasingly suggests the benefits of being ambivalent. Specifically, we show how traditional responses to ambivalence, which largely view ambivalence negatively-paralysis, moving against, moving away, moving toward, and vacillation-can sometimes have positive benefits. We also discuss the positive nature of emerging responses to ambivalence: commitment, trust, creativity, openness to change, as well as wisdom and adaptation. We map both the emerging and traditional responses to ambivalence to reveal the various dimensions that underlie them. We also show how emerging responses appear to cluster around two different targets of ambivalence (e.g., relationships vs. knowledge) and discuss the properties of these targets (e.g., hotter vs. colder cognitions). Finally, we discuss the relationship between positivity and ambivalence, and we posit avenues for future research.
Cross-cultural psychology has demonstrated important links between cultural context and individual behavioural development. Given this relationship, cross-cultural research has increasingly investigated what happens to individuals who have developed in one cultural context when they attempt to re-establish their lives in another one. The long-term psychological consequences of this process of acculturation are highly variable, depending on social and personal variables that reside in the society of origin, the society of settlement, and phenomena that both exist prior to, and arise during, the course of acculturation. This article outlines a conceptual framework within which acculturation and adaptation can be investigated, and then presents some general findings and conclusions based on a sample of empirical studies.
I present a complex theoretical explanation that draws on multiple bodies of literature to present an academically rigorous version of a simple argument: good deeds earn chits. I advance/defend three core assertions: (1) corporate philanthropy can generate positive moral capital among communities and stakeholders, (2) moral capital can provide shareholders with insurance-like protection for a firm's relationship-based intangible assets, and (3) this protection contributes to shareholder wealth. I highlight several managerial implications of these core assertions.
Emotional ambivalence, or the simultaneous experience of positive and negative emotions, is an underexplored emotional state in organizations. The results from two laboratory experiments demonstrate that individuals experiencing emotional ambivalence are better at recognizing unusual relationships between concepts, therefore showing an ability believed to be important to organizational creativity. Informational theories of emotion suggest that individuals interpret emotional ambivalence, which is perceived to be an unusual emotional experience, as signaling they are in an unusual environment, which in turn increases sensitivity to unusual associations. These results yield important implications regarding how to influence creative performance at work.
We introduce the concept of identity workspaces, defined as institutions that provide a holding environment for individuals' identity work. We propose that institutions offering reliable social defenses, sentient communities, and vital rites of passage are likely to be experienced as identity workspaces. The fluidity of contemporary corporate environments and the movement toward individually driven careers has generated an increased need for identity work, while concurrently rendering corporations less reliable as spaces in which to conduct it. As a result, we posit that business schools are increasingly invested with the function of identity workspaces. The conceptual framework presented here provides a lens to better understand how and why business schools are called upon to fulfill a function of growing importance-developing management education that goes beyond influencing what managers know and do, and supports them in understanding and shaping who they are.
Transitions in work memberships, relationships, and roles can result in work-related identity loss. This article contributes to a growing body of research examining identity transitions by providing a dynamic model to explain these identity losses. Our model incorporates principles from identity research and grief research to predict how employees will react to the loss of a work-related identity. We conceptualize the transition period as one of liminality, during which individuals engage in sensemaking and emotion regulation to determine who they were and who they are becoming. Specifically, the process involves cognitive and emotional processing in two domains: loss orientation and restoration orientation. We propose that emotions experienced ( and their associated regulatory foci) are critical for determining whether individuals experience adaptive or maladaptive identity-related outcomes.
We theorize about how the entrepreneurial identity, which we define as the constellation of claims around the founder, new venture, and market opportunity as to "who we are" and "what we do," serves as a touchstone for investor judgments about new venture plausibility. We propose that entrepreneurial identities are judged favorably when they are legitimately distinctive, and that such judgments are influenced by market context and are mediated by identity narratives that provide institutional primes and equivocal cues in investor sensemaking.
Despite the improving economy, consolidation and staff reductions characterize the human resource staffing policies of many firms. Furthermore, economic and demographic pressures indicate that involuntary job loss will be an increasingly common experience for managers and professionals in the coming decade. Based on a synthesis of empirical studies, this paper proposes a model showing factors which may generate career growth from job loss. Organizational strategies are recommended for creative management of this career transition and suggestions are provided to focus future research.
Through two qualitative studies, we examine how members of a particularly demanding occupation conduct identity work to negotiate an optimal balance between personal and social identities. Findings are based on open-ended survey responses from and in-depth interviews with Episcopal priests. We first explore the situational and vocational demands placed on those in challenging occupations, along with the identity tensions that often result from those demands. We then specify and classify several identity work tactics that ameliorate these demands and tensions by differentiating or integrating personal and social identities. To synthesize findings, we develop a theoretical model of identity work.
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By working with and through the paradoxes present in the resource-based view (RBV) of strategic management, scholars can advance understanding concerning the contradictions and tensions inherent in creating and sustaining superior firm performance. We identify and discuss various RBV paradoxes, illustrating how paradoxical thinking can enhance theorizing and open up new vistas for knowing and understanding. Finally, we discuss the utility of the paradoxical perspective in furthering RBV scholarship.
This article introduces the construct of alternative selves-self-redefining counterfactuals that are part of the self-concept. This construct adds the parallel time line of what could have been to the temporal framework underlying theories of the self. I discuss how alternative selves develop and how they influence people's professional lives, and I outline the implications of this construct for research on the self-concept, life stories, and counterfactual thinking.
Past research in both the transitions to adulthood literature and cultural sociology more broadly suggests that the working class relies on traditional cultural models in their construction of identity. In the contemporary post-industrial world, however, traditional life pathways are now much less available to working-class men and women. I draw on 93 interviews with black and white working-class young people in their 20s to 30s and ask, in an era of increasing uncertainty, where traditional markers of adulthood have become tenuous, what kinds of cultural models do working-class young people employ to validate their adult identities? In contrast to previous studies of working-class identity, I found that respondents embraced a model of therapeutic selfhood—that is, an inwardly directed self preoccupied with its own psychic development. I demonstrate that the therapeutic narrative allows working-class men and women to redefine competent adulthood in terms of overcoming a painful family past. Respondents required a witness to validate their performances of adulthood, however, and the inability to find one left many lost in transition.
This paper extends existing social and behavioral science knowledge by placing explicit emphasis on concept-formation issues as they pertain to organizational science. Moreover, the paper (a) introduces in a detailed manner the notions of concept traveling and concept stretching, (b) provides a clear treatment of various conceptual abstraction levels, (c) articulates and offers the negation approach, and (d) shows how to attain the abstraction levels via the use of the negation approach to concept formation.
We review literature on three important aspects of identity - namely, identification, identity enactment, and self-verification - to develop an identity-based framework for understanding organizational issues. We then analyze three major dimensions through which telecommuting alters the social context of work and interaction (location of work, time spent telecommuting, and voluntary nature) and discuss the implications of telecommuting within the identity-based framework. Finally, we explore the implications that telecommuting has for identity-related theories.
Occupations often have been defined as belonging to a particular class of work, linked to a single occupational rhetoric. In contrast, I argue here that most occupations are segmented in terms of divisions among workers, among work tasks, and among occupational identities. I present evidence from an ethnographic study of restaurant cooks to demonstrate that workers rely on a variety of occupational rhetorics as resources to define their work and their identity. I claim that cooks draw on the alternative rhetorics of profession, art, business, and labor to shape how they think of themselves as workers. The paper shows that occupational identity is socially, temporally, and spatially situated, raising the question of when particular rhetorical strategies will be relied upon.
When adaptation requires innovation, or the creation of variety, exploration is crucial. High levels of exploration thus imply variance-seeking rather than mean-seeking learning processes. In a study of 56 new business development projects, given high exploration, organizational learning was more effective when the projects operated with autonomy with respect to goals and supervision. As degree of exploration de creased, better results were associated with less autonomy on both counts. This contingent effect persisted even when I controlled for the emergence of deftness and comprehension.
In this autoethnography I provide a reflective-reflexive account of my search for an(other) identity following my move from my native Bavaria to North West England. It is a story of contradiction and uncertainty, which addresses issues of national identity and cultural adaptation. I offer a human portrait of how I experienced the interaction of agency and structure in my endeavor to become British and how I became embroiled in a moral, ethical, and emotional turmoil of conflicting imperatives. The key themes, through which I make explicit the struggle to create a coherent narrative of my self in relation to experiences of belonging, difference, and attachment in social, cultural, and political spaces, are departure and arrival, border crossing, and a disoriented self in transit. In presenting this multilayered account, I employ the technique of performance frames in the form of three literary categories, epic, drama and lyric, through which I revisit critical events and elucidate the gradual process of bringing my innermost feelings and thoughts to the surface. By weaving a rich tapestry of evocative, analytical, and theoretical materials I make explicit the complexities involved in autoethnographic research. Through inviting others to embark with me on this inner journey, I seek to assist those who find themselves similarly suspended in liminal spaces and to engender empathy and understanding among those who act as hosts toward border crossers like myself. Ultimately, I hope that my autoethnography provides a communicative, potentially subversive space, which invites critical reflection and discussion on the intersectionality of collective identities and thereby promotes individuals' freedom to choose, negotiate, and translate their cultural identities freely regardless of their cultural, social, or ethnic origins.
We develop theory about how growing at work is an interpretive accomplishment in which individuals sense that they are making progressive self-change. Through a study of how employees interpret themselves as growing at three organizations, we develop a theoretical account of how employees draw from contextual and personal resources to interpret their growing in ways that embed their idiosyncratic experiences within an organization. The data suggest that employees develop three different types of growing self-construals: achieving, learning, and helping. We use our data to ground theory that explains the development of growing self-construals as deeply embedded in organizations. At the same time, we suggest that growing self-construals reflect individual agency through how individuals work with available resources to weave interpretations of themselves into their growing self-construals. We further suggest that growing self-construals influence the actions employees take to support a sense of progressive self-change.
This paper describes the way in which a hospital stay functions as a period of liminality. The opportunities for transformation inherent in such an experience are examined, with special attention given to the role of the hospital chaplain as the "ritual leader" who can help facilitate the movement through liminality and into wholeness.
Research on roles and identities generally represents a micro perspective that does not account for the reconstruction of professional role identity, owing to insufficient attention to institutional forces. We trace institutional influences on professional role identity reconstruction and extend theory by building bridges across institutional, organizational, and individual levels of analysis. Findings indicate that agentic reconstruction of professional role identity is enabled and constrained by an institutional environment that provides interpretive, legitimating, and material resources that professionals adopt and adapt. Institutional forces also impact organizational arrangements that further influence microlevel agency. We elaborate interactions among these three levels of analysis.