Identity Work and Emotions: A Review

• Published date: 01 January 2018
• Date: 01 January 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12119

International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 20, 120–133 (2018)

DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12119

Identity Work and Emotions: A Review

Ingo Winkler

Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark, Alsion 2, A2, DK-6400,

Sønderborg, Denmark

Email: inw@sam.sdu.dk

This paper reviews the empirical literature on identity work and identifies two distinct

approaches to incorporating emotion. The majority of empirical studies use emotion

to describe the experiences of identity work. In doing so, the authors (a) mention

the emotions that people feel in situations that trigger identity work, (b) illustrate

identity work as an emotional endeavour, and (c) describe the emotional impact of

successful and unsuccessful identity work. There is also an emerging literature that

examines the mutual constitution of emotions and identity work.These authors address

emotional labour,affective social identification, emotional attachment and detachment,

and humour when studying identity work. This paper suggests that, to understand

better the relation between emotions and identity work,future research should examine

the role of emotions in problematizingidentity, the emotional constitution of the identity

work experience, the intersection of emotions and other ways of knowing the self, and

the links between emotions and power in identity work.

Introduction

In the past 16 years, identity work has become an es-

tablished topic within management and organization

studies. As a recent review in this journal demon-

strates, an increasing number of scholars are in-

terested in investigating the processes of establish-

ing, maintaining and altering identity within social

interaction (Brown 2015). The particular focus of

literature on identity work is on situations and pe-

riods where identity is threatened (Alvesson and

Willmott 2002; Sveningsson and Alvesson 2003;

Wieland 2010). This body of research underlines the

dynamic and problematic aspects of creating, sus-

taining and altering a person’s self-identity, i.e. the

individual’s notions of who or what to be (Watson

2008), and their social identity, i.e. the social notions

of who or what an individualmight be (Watson 2008).

Scholars tend to adopt Sveningsson and Alvesson’s

(2003, p. 1165) definition of identity work as ‘form-

ing, repairing, maintaining, strengthening or revising

the constructions that are productive of a precarious

sense of coherence and distinctiveness’. Earlier con-

ceptualizations of identity work (e.g. Rosenfeld 1999;

Snow and Anderson 1987; Tracyand Naughton 1994)

are often neglected.

Despite increasing interest in understanding the

dynamic nature of and problems inherent in the pro-

cesses of creating, maintaining and changing people’s

identity, there are various aspects about which we

know little. The role of emotions within the process of

identity work constitutes one of those aspects (Brown

2015; Casc´

on-Pereira and Hallier 2012; Sturdy et al.

2006). For example, Sturdy et al. (2006, p. 845) argue

that research tends to reveal little about the ‘emotional

character’ of identity work. Recently, Brown (2015)

stated that there is considerable scope for future re-

search on how the process of identity construction is

influenced by emotions. However, no contemporary

review of the identity literature has focused on the

combination of identity work and emotions. Further-

more, we know little about the particular directions

that are available for future research on the role that

emotions may play in identity work.This paper seeks

to clarify how prior research within organization and

management studies has investigated identity work

and emotions. Tothis end, this review summarizes and

maps existing empirical studies and develops themes

for future research in this field.

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