Project Managers' Identity: An Interpretive Phenomenological Perspective

Abstract

The elementary building block of identity is meaning since that which is meaningless is also invisible to the self and others (Peterson 1999). However, the shifting nature of meaning inscribed in the multiple contexts of self, the other(s) and discourses, has rendered various academic analytical attempts to highlight a distinctive self-identity rather inconclusive. Consequently, many identity-related studies conducted under the umbrella of social constructivism define self-identity in terms of a fragmented ontology in which the links between everyday agency and ‘pre-existing’ self are discontinued and seemingly non-referential. For example, by positioning identity as a predicate of discontinuous identity work, the subjective antecedents of identity work become ‘concealed’. Empirical manifestation of selfidentity is reduced to (impermanence of) meaning in discourse in such cases. On the other hand, essentialist attempts to define self-identity have led to a reified depiction of the self, in which case, agency is stripped of its emergent qualities. Therefore, unless one resorts to a ‘fixed’ and ‘permanent’ depiction of objects, entities and concepts, the fundamental inconclusiveness of (distinctive) selfidentity positions all that precedes self-expression as either analytically inaccessible or ontologically indeterminate. On that note, to make the antecedents of identity work visible, this study draws on the ‘depth ontology’ of critical realism so as to highlight self-identity as a ‘distinctive entity’ (Marks and O'Mahoney 2014), that is, as a ‘subjectum’ (Heidegger 1953) of one’s being-in-the-world of work. Further and more importantly, by highlighting self-identity as a distinctive entity that informs identity work, the study draws attention to the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ of existing self-definitions and the selfdefeating proclivity of self-referential/reinforcing forms of perception. By demonstrating how adopted identities ‘create problems’ (Beech et al. 2016) on the ‘empirical level’ (such as producing the experience of negative emotional states) the study develops a critical inquiry into the adopted selfnotions highlighting the problematic, in addition to the precarious, nature of self-identity.