Performing Identities at Work: Evidence from Contrasting Sectors

This paper argues that in making products and services organizations
shape (create, sustain and/or change) the way workers individually and
collectively think about themselves and the way they are seen by others.
The empirical results are drawn from interviews, observations and periods
of work shadowing in the service sector, the ‘knowledge based economy’
and traditional manufacturing. The findings highlight the particular ways
in which organizations mould and shape worker identities. This includes
the creation of new identities for workers to inhabit, the sustenance of
existing identities formed elsewhere and the realignment of well
established identities in the context of work reorganization.