Identity

Definition

Identity can be understood as a reflexively organized narrative, stimulated by social interaction and ordered by institutional patterns of being and knowing. Identities are crafted through ‘identity work’, a concept that describes the ongoing mental activity that an individual undertakes in constructing a coherent and distinct identity. Identity work is prompted by social interaction that raises questions of ‘who am I?’ and ‘who are we?’. In attempting to answer these questions, we craft our own self-narrative by drawing on cultural resources as well as our memories and desires to reproduce or transform our sense of self. Identity issues become salient for police officers when the routinized production of self-identity is challenged through uncertainty, anxiety, or self-doubt, for example, during organizational change initiatives.

Distinctive Features

Identity has become one of the key themes in social sciences, cutting across debates from globalization and national identities through the identity politics of gender and sexuality and to specific contemporary concerns over issues such as identity theft and regional governance. Given the diverse theoretical disciplines concerned with identity, there is a wide difference in the ways in which identity is conceptualized. The traditional understanding of identity, originating in social psychology, is to view identity as an essence: an enduring and cohesive ‘given’, making up the distinctive core of one's self. However, more recent understandings have conceived of an individual as having multiple, often overlapping and contradictory identities, crafted as an ongoing project when confronted with questions of who they are. In the study of identities, this has meant a shift in conceptual focus, from ‘being’ to becoming and from identity to identities and identification.

Identity has emerged as an important and popular area of analysis within work organizations. This popularity can, in part, be attributed to the dual role of identity as an analytical concern for both the individual and organization. Therefore, policing organizations are significant sites for various forms of ‘identity work’. Officers and other members associate themselves with their organizations and define themselves as organizational members. In identifying with the organization, individuals not only create a sense of self, they also construct the organization's identity. At the collective level, studies of the identities of organizations have gained popularity. Here, identity is the answer to questions posed by organizational members of ‘who are we?’, ‘what business are we in?’ and ‘what do we want to be?’. Statements of identity are a self-referencing aspect of organizational culture, however, in comparison with culture, organizational identity is seen to be more explicit (Hatch and Schultz, 2004).

Studies on organizational identities have examined, inter alia: the ability to change [Page 167]organizational identities and their relationship with organizational members; individual identification with organizational identities; manipulating organizational identities as a means of securing competitive advantage; and the relationship between organizational identity, culture and image (see Hatch and Schultz, 2004). Studies focusing on identities in organizations have traditionally been dominated by social psychology where the concern has been on how to develop or match individuals’ needs with those of the organization (for example, in recruitment and selection, team working, culture management, motivation and leadership). More contemporary studies, drawing on a fluid and multiple conceptualization of identity have focused on the extent to which organizations attempt to influence the construction and nature of individual identities, that is, ‘identity control’ (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002) or, conversely, on gaining a better understanding of how individuals draw on specific ‘identity resources’ within the organization in constructing their sense of self. Such studies have been concerned with understanding better the dynamic interrelationships between individual ‘identity work’ and organizations, recognizing that organizations are not only settings in which individual identities are constructed, but also that identities are materials out of which larger, more recognizably social or institutional identities are built.

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