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Introduction

In contemporary society, the self is an increasingly fashionable object of both public fascination and scholarly interest. Popular television shows like The Biggest Loser or The Bachelor explore how to become a better, more fulfilled person while at the same time self-help and advice books sell millions of copies. From many different voices, we hear the self framed as a site of "work" - something that can be improved for personal and even social betterment. For scholars, the self has similarly been seen as an object for scrutiny. In social science disciplines ranging from psychology to sociology to geography to communication to organization studies, scholarship related to identity has boomed in the past thirty years. The popularity of identity research likely results from growing interest in asking foundational questions relevant to all humans: "Who am I?" and "How should I act?" (Alvesson, Ashcraft & Thomas 2008). To be sure, addressing these fundamental questions has long been the focus of art, religion, education, politics and scholarship, and yet in contemporary times, the importance of these questions has deepened as traditional anchors of identity, such as church, family and work have undergone radical transformations. With all these changes taking place in an increasingly globalized society, answering the question "Who am I?" becomes both more difficult and more complex. At the same time that organizations continue to play a significant role in answering this question for most people, organizations and the implications for identity that accompany them are themselves in flux.

In this initial chapter, we seek to situate studies of identity in organizational communication and organization studies within a larger, ongoing story about the self and organizations. The intent is not to provide a comprehensive history of the theoretical development of the concept of the self (see Holstein & Gubrium 2000; Rose 1998), but rather to position conversations about identity in organization studies within a larger historical and cultural framework. Fundamentally, this chapter addresses this question: Why is understanding identity important for understanding contemporary organizations and organizing processes? Answering this question requires moving beyond studies of particular organizations to examine some broad trends and historical developments in society, work and organizations that all contribute to the salience of identity as a construct for explaining organizing and organizations.

Rise of the Individual Self

The importance of identity in organization studies must be understood in the context of a world in which the individual is positioned as a key way of understanding, regulating and organizing society. In contemporary Western society, human beings are construed as individuals having unique selves. It is thus important in the beginning of our discussion to recognize the importance of individual identity in contemporary society as a recent social construction:

For it is only at this historical moment, and in a limited and localized geographical space, that human being is understood in terms of individuals who are selves, each equipped with an inner domain, a "psychology," which is structured by the interaction between particular biographical experience and certain general laws or processes of the human animal. (Rose 1998, p. 23)

This conception of humans as individuals is shaped by both historical circumstance (i.e., changing political and economic systems) as well as political positioning by groups to shape knowledge (e.g., growth of psychology as a discipline). Nikolas Rose (1998) argues that "the ways in which humans 'give meaning to experience' have their own history" (p. 25). In other words, it is not a natural "truth" that we conceive of the human being as an individual self, but rather it is a construction of both historical circumstance and political maneuvering. In particular, the rise of the individual in contemporary society is inextricably linked to the growth of psychology and related disciples that have shaped our understanding along these lines.

Increased Possibilities for Narrating the Self in the Globalized World

British sociologist Anthony Giddens (1991) asserted that the conditions of late modernity (i.e., that we live in a world characterized by information exchange, globalization and fluidity) are what make identity a complex and important contemporary issue. Throughout much of human history, the narratives available to frame an individual identity have been rather limited. Telling the story "who am I?" was constrained by the few variations of knowledge and experience deemed "legitimate" at the time. Imagine a Chinese peasant 200 years ago. The options available for this person to frame her story were limited by rather fixed societal discourses related to class, gender and cultural traditions. In many ways, much of the story of self was already written for that peasant and her identity was likely rather stable. Compare this to modern times in a globalized world where people have access to many stories, many lifestyles. Through communication technologies and modern media, one can see how other people live, how they act and how they present themselves to others. These windows into the lives of others provide many more possibilities for defining the self. This time in history, more than any other, provides multiple opportunities for forming narratives of the self.

As the influences on and opportunities for framing identity have increased, the construction of the self has become a focal point in Western culture. Rather than viewing identity as singular, fixed and coherent, the self is now more often conceived as multiple and, at times, even conflicted. Individuals must manage many "facets" of their selves - as an employee, team member, parent, spouse, citizen, volunteer, etc. (Tracy & Trethewey 2005). Sometimes all these facets fit together nicely, but at other times, they conflict and must be managed. For instance, contemporary families experience one key challenge in balancing work and family identities (Nippert-Eng 1996). For parents of young children, being both a "good parent" and a "good worker" often results in conflicts that must be negotiated, often on a daily basis. The management of multiple identities, as a discursive practice, thus becomes the primary identity challenge in modern society and in modern organizations (Cheney 1991; Kuhn & Nelson 2002; Larson & Pepper 2003).

With increased opportunities for narrating the self, people spend considerable time and energy forming, shaping and managing their identities - a process known as identity work (Alvesson et al. 2008; Sveningsson & Alvesson 2003). Identity work involves "forming, repairing, maintaining, strengthening or revising" who we are (Sveningsson & Alvesson 2003, p. 1165). As humans, we engage in this process all the time, sometimes conscious of it (active identity work) and, at other times, unaware of the ongoing process (passive identity work). Think, for instance, about two "texts" that most college students produce: a Facebook page and a resumé. Both are undoubtedly exercises in identity management, and yet they are also quite different. What you choose to reveal about yourself on Facebook often says more about how you want to appear to your friends. Alternatively, your resumé is probably quite different, likely recounting only your professional experiences and accomplishments. Both represent constructions of you, but differ based upon the audience. Both also demonstrate how we can do identity work in passive as well as active ways (Wieland 2010); you are more likely conscious of different things when you represent yourself in your resumé as opposed to on your Facebook page. This is just one example of how the construction of the self and the management of different aspects of identity becomes a key challenge in contemporary society.

One way to view the centrality of identity in popular Western culture is to consider the modern consumer. To a significant extent, our economy is based on identity consumption. In a post-Fordist economy, one in which production has moved away from single products aimed at mass audiences to custom products aimed at increasingly smaller niche markets, the construction of self is also largely a consumer process. Choosing a particular product or brand over another, particularly for younger generations, is often as much of a statement about who you think you are (or are not) as it is about the particular need or utility of a certain item (Kendall, Gill & Cheney 2007). Advertisers undoubtedly encourage choices of products based upon lifestyle and identity. When, for example, did you last see an advertisement for Nike shoes that focused on the utility of the shoe rather than the image of the Nike athlete? Likewise, choosing an iPhone or a Galaxy likely says something about you and how you see yourself. Products not only have functions, but send and reflect messages about identity.

In addition to our personal lives, self-making has also become a focal point in work and organizations. As Tracy and Trethewey (2005) note, "identity is increasingly constituted by public, profitdriven, and institutionalized discourses" (p. 173) that generate pressure on people to become more organizationally profitable and efficient workers and managers. Management consultants, like...