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- All Subjects: identity opportunity
- Creators: Corley, Kevin
Description
After decades of dormancy, character is re-emerging as an important research topic among organizational leadership researchers in response to the need to better explain the source of certain exemplary and ethical leader performance (Hannah & Avolio, 2011; Leonard, 1997; Thompson & Riggio, 2010; Wright & Goodstein, 2007). However, efforts to operationalize character are criticized for their abstract and idealistic trait-based conceptualizations that fail to capture the reality of leadership and situational dynamics (Conger & Hollenbeck, 2010). The purpose of this study is to develop a more robust theoretical approach to character that is empirically grounded in the real life complexities of leadership. Combat provides the context for this study because the adversity of such an extreme context tends to make character a more salient and readily observable phenomenon than in more conventional organizational contexts (Wright & Quick, 2011; Hannah, Uhl-Bien, Avolio, & Cavarretta, 2009). I employed an ethnographic grounded theory design to gain a unique insider's perspective absent in many studies of leader character (Charmaz, 2009; Parry & Meindl, 2002). Data collection involved (1) physically embedding for six months with U.S. Army small unit infantry leaders operating in combat in Afghanistan; (2) participant observation in the full range of combat activities engaged in by these leaders; and (3) in-depth semi-structured interviews with key informants. An important contribution of this study is that the emergent concept of leader character is fully situated in the leader's social and environmental context represented by the leader's inner struggle to resist the adversity of combat and uphold the standards of leadership. In this dialectical framework, certain agentic resources important to resolving this inner struggle emerge as the locus of leader character. This agency-based concept of character is rooted in the internalization of the standards of leadership through identity-conferring normative commitments and entails particular motivational and volitional capacities. These produce a distinct mode of functioning--a strong form of personal moral agency--characterized by the leader's willingness to sacrifice in upholding standards in the face of adversity. This primacy of leader agency over adversity is the hallmark of leader character--what I call the character to lead.
ContributorsJennings, Peter L. (Author) / Corley, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Waldman, David (Thesis advisor) / Hannah, Sean T (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Individuals have multiple identities, and several of them may be simultaneously driving enacted behavior in a given context. Scholars have suggested that intrapersonal identity networks – the combination of identities, relationships between identities, and identity characteristics – influence enactment. However, very little is known about the process by which several components of one’s identity network result in a single stream of enactment. This is important because different factors (e.g., leader actions) may impact this process and, in turn, change the way people act in organizations and interpret the actions of others. I examined a healthcare system designed to surgically treat cancer patients. Taking an inductive interpretivist approach, and using grounded theory methodology, I developed a process model of intrapersonal identity network enactment that also takes into account interpretations of other system members’ enactment. My findings contribute to the social identity literature by suggesting that a common, highly central identity is not enough to align behavior in organizations. Instead individuals may enact a common “higher-order” identity in combination with the rest of their identity network in ways that actually work against each other, even as they genuinely work toward the same purpose. I also extend the literature on multiple identities by explicating a process by which four different identities, and four characteristics of each identity, foster enactment toward the surgical system. Finally, I show how one’s intrapersonal identity network influences how they interpret the enacted behavior of others. In doing so, I extend the identity threat and opportunity literature by showing how one person’s identity threat is another’s identity opportunity, even when they share a common higher-order identity. In short, my study shows how individuals can work against each other, even when they are genuinely working toward the same purpose.
ContributorsFenters, Virgil (Author) / Ashforth, Blake (Thesis advisor) / Corley, Kevin (Committee member) / Luciano, Margaret (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020