1998/08/01 by Craig R. Scott, Steven R. Corman, George Cheney · 400 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Mathematics · #Management and Organizational Studies #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies #Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy #Identification (biology) #Set (abstract data type) #Identity (music) #Key (lock) #Social identity theory #Process (computing) #Duality (order theory) #Position (finance) #Sociology #Connection (principal bundle) #Epistemology #Computer science #Mathematics #Social group #Pure mathematics #Economics #Social science #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.1998.tb00223.x
published in Communication Theory 8(3), 298-336 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 1998/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/13
In response to the growing interest in issues related to attachment in organizations, this paper develops a theory of identification in the workplace based on three key aspects of Structuration theory. In this model, the identification process is treated as a duality involving identities that create and are created by identifications, which are themselves observed in social interactions with others. The structural component of this model is composed of several possible identities conceptualized primarily in terms of regions varying in size or position and tenure, possessing front and back regions, and displaying both unique and overlapping regions with one another. The existence of multiple identities implicates multiple corresponding “targets” of attachment and expressions of connection. Activity and activity foci are included in the model to help define the situation and thus account for identification with one target as opposed to or along with others at various times. In this situation-sensitive view, activity is presumed to “link” to a certain identity region (or set of overlapping regions) more so than to others. The essay closes by discussing some of the advantages of a Structurational view of identification.