Pratt, M. G., Rockmann, K. W., & Kaufmann, J. B. (2006). Constructing professional identity: The role of work and identity learning cycles in the customization of identity among medical residents. Academy of management journal, 49(2), 235-262.
For related, see Markus & Nurius (1986). This paper has a great write-up on the qualitative, grounded theory process that they used.
Summary
Professionals tend to define themselves not by organizational membership but by what they do. Previous research has not explicitly differentiated between work behaviors and professional identities. This paper reveals how mismatch between professional identity (“I’m a surgeon…”) and work behaviors (“…but all I do is paperwork.”) triggers identity construction. The process of comparing one’s professional identity and one’s actual work is referred to as work-identity integrity assessments. Three types of identity customization are identified: enriching, patching, and splinting. The raw materials used in identity customization are called identity sets.
Identity enriching occurs when one’s understanding of an identity becomes “deeper and more nuanced.” One example from the paper shows a primary care resident passing from seeing themselves as treating the sick to seeing themselves as caring for the sick. Identity patching occurs when one identity is used to fill in the holes of another incomplete identity. For example, as surgical residents progressed towards becoming surgeons, they relied on their identity as a medical generalist to patch “holes” in their surgeon identity. This resulted in a new, composite identity (a “complete doctor”). Finally, identity splinting was used when a nascent identity needed to be protected and nurtured, as in the case of radiologists. They saw themselves as students until they started to do work that they saw as consistent with the identity of being a radiologist. This identity work was validated through feedback (direct or indirect through the “grapevine”) and role models. As competence stabilized, so did professional identity. Job discretion is control over how work is done. In low discretion, low identity violation situations, identity enrichment was used. In low discretion, high identity violation situations, identity patching and identity splinting were used (depending on how developed their professional identities were).
Application
Employers should (1) highlight the need for employee identity construction, (2) provide the “raw materials for such construction” (identity sets), and (3) ensure that opportunities for identity validation exist.
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