Under threat: emotional and behavioral responses to occupational identity threat

Research on identity threat has predominantly focused on the consequences of threat to some ascribed or involuntary identities, while overlooking individuals' responses to occupational identity threat. Integrating identity theory with identity threat literature, we argue that encountering occupational identity threat promotes negative emotion and feedback-seeking behavior, and negative emotion further mediates the relationship between occupational identity threat and feedback-seeking behavior. Moreover, individuals' performance self-esteem strengthens both the direct effect of occupational identity threat on negative emotion, and the indirect effect of occupational identity threat on feedback-seeking behavior through negative emotion. The results from two experimental studies and one field study provide support for these predictions. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Gender and Legitimacy in Personal Service Occupations: The Case of End-of-Life Doulas and Death Midwives

The emerging occupations of end-of-life doula and death midwife are part of a growing sector of personal service jobs. Designed to support, educate, and empower dying people and their loved ones, these new roles entail both the commodification of women’s unpaid labor and a repositioning of the paid work typically done by marginalized women. This study examines the identity talk of 19 occupational pioneers and focuses on the relationship between gender, class, race, and efforts to secure occupational legitimacy. Findings suggest that, in an effort to mitigate tensions stemming from the professionalization of feminized work, these pioneers strategically embrace a feminine occupational identity in ways that code their labor as White and middle class.

Entrepreneurial Identity in US Book Publishing in the Twenty-First Century

Entrepreneurship underpins many roles within the publishing industry, from freelancing to bookselling. Entrepreneurs are shaped by the contexts in which their entrepreneurship is situated (social, political, economic, and national). Additionally, entrepreneurship is integral to occupational identity for book publishing entrepreneurs. This Element examines entrepreneurship through the lens of identity and narrative based on interview data with book publishing entrepreneurs in the US Book publishing entrepreneurship narratives of independence, culture over commerce, accidental profession, place, risk, (in)stability, busyness, and freedom are examined in this Element.

When Digital Technologies Enable and Threaten Occupational Identity: The Delicate Balancing Act of Data Scientists

Occupations are increasingly embedded with and affected by digital technologies. These technologies both enable and threaten occupational identity and create two important tensions: they make the persistence of an occupation possible while also potentially rendering it obsolete, and they magnify both the similarity and distinctiveness of occupations with regard to other occupations. Based on the critical case study of an online community dedicated to data science, we investigate longitudinally how data scientists address the two tensions of occupational identity associated with digital technologies and reach transient syntheses in terms of “optimal distinctiveness” and “persistent extinction.” We propose that identity work associated with digital technologies follows a composite life-cycle and dialectical process. We explain that people constantly need to adjust and redefine their occupational identity, i.e., how they define who they are and what they do. We contribute to scholarship on digital technologies and identity work by illuminating how people deal in an ongoing manner with digital technologies that simultaneously enable and threaten their occupational identity.

TAKUT AKAN KEGAGALAN SEBAGAI PREDIKTOR PROKRASTINASI AKADEMIK DIMODERASI STATUS IDENTITAS VOKASIONAL MAHASISWA BIDIKMISI UPI

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh takut akan kegagalan terhadap prokrastinasi akademik yang dimoderasi status identitas vokasional pada mahasiswa Bidikmisi Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. Penelitian dilakukan pada 227 orang mahasiswa Bidikmisi Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia tingkat satu, dua, tiga dan empat menggunakan instrumen Academic Procrastination Scale (APS), The Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory (PFAI), dan Occupational Identity Scale (OIS). Hasil pengumpulan data dianalisis menggunakan metode analisis regresi ganda dan metode Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA) dengan program Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) versi 25.0 dan Microsoft Excel 2010. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa takut akan kegagalan dapat menjadi prediktor terjadinya prokrastinasi akademik. Status identitas vokasional achievement berperan sebagai quasi moderator, status identitas vokasional moratorium tidak memoderasi, status identitas vokasional foreclosure berperan sebagai pure moderator, dan status identitas vokasional diffusion berperan sebagai variabel intervening pada penelitian ini.

The Effect of Waiters’ Occupational Identity on Employee Turnover Within The Context of Michelin-Starred Restaurants

Although restaurants employ a high number of employees across the United Kingdom, accounting for 4.5% of total U.K. employment, this figure masks the relatively high degree of employee turnover. There is limited information about work engagement and turnover among waitering staff (servers). This study analyzed which antecedents (e.g., employer brand, extraversion, and stereotype) impact servers’ occupational identity, and how this relationship affects work engagement and employee turnover within a theoretically informed conceptual framework. A sample of servers in London based Michelin-starred restaurants was used (N = 398). Although extraversion and stereotype reactance were not found to be relevant to occupational identity, employer brand was. The notion that the construction of occupational identity has consequences for work engagement and employee turnover was supported, as positive relationships were found. This research has practical implications for restaurant management strategy, and informs further investigations within the field.