This book provides a systematic overview on issues and challenges related to work identity and identification at work in the ‘new’ South African workplace. It shares results and measures of a work identity research project that was conducted in a variety of modern South African workplaces. It looks at the concept of work identity in the light of a keen and growing interest in why people are becoming attached to, involved in, engaged with, or committed to their work. Still a relatively unexplored concept, built on the foundations of different identity theory streams, the concept of work identity provides a fundamental reconsideration of explaining engaging behaviours at work. Against the backdrop of a changing political and economic landscape and the impact these radical changes had on the South African workplace, the main research question of the project was the South African employees’ question ‘Who am I at work?’. In search of the answer to that question, the book explores the impact of South African employees’ life spheres and life roles on their choice of work-related identification foci. It further explores how identity work tactics and strategies are being used to develop and define their own work identities, resulting in the conceptualisation and development of a work-based identity measure. This book provides a systematic overview on issues and challenges related to work identity and identification at work in the 'new' South African workplace. It shares results and measures of a work identity research project that was conducted in a variety of modern South African workplaces. It looks at the concept of work identity in the light of a keen and growing interest in why people are becoming attached to, involved in, engaged with, or committed to their work. Still a relatively unexplored concept, built on the foundations of different identity theory streams, the concept of work identity provides a fundamental reconsideration of explaining engaging behaviours at work. Against the backdrop of a changing political and economic landscape and the impact these radical changes had on the South African workplace, the main research question of the project was the South African employees' question 'Who am I at work?'. In search of the answer to that question, the book explores the impact of South African employees' life spheres and life roles on their choice of work-related identification foci.0It further explores how identity work tactics and strategies are being used to develop and define their own work identities, resulting in the conceptualisation and development of a work-based identity measure Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Introduction: What This Book Is All About....Pages 1-20 Front Matter....Pages 21-21 Work Identity: Clarifying the Concept....Pages 23-51 The Process of Identity Work: Negotiating a Work Identity....Pages 53-86 Personal and Situational Work-Based Identity Antecedents....Pages 87-116 Subjective and Objective Work-Based Identity Consequences....Pages 117-147 Front Matter....Pages 149-149 Exploratory Empirical Tests of Work-Based Identity Antecedents and Consequences....Pages 151-182 Front Matter....Pages 183-183 Work-Based Identity Model Testing....Pages 185-201 Front Matter....Pages 203-203 Conclusions....Pages 205-232 Moving Forward: Practical and Theoretical Implications....Pages 233-247 Back Matter....Pages 249-254
