Handbook of Research Methods for Studying Identity In and Around Organizations : Usual Suspects and Beyond

This practical yet cutting-edge Handbook includes both established and innovative methods for studying identity in management, organisations, and cognate fields. Incorporating a breadth of narrative, visual, ethnographic and embodied methods, as well as ways for analysing naturally occurring data, this Handbook offers exciting new interdisciplinary perspectives on the study of identity in and around organisations. Notions of identity have gained much momentum in organisation and management studies over the past 20 years, however, identity scholars tend to rely on a limited set of methods in their research. Looking beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries, the Handbook draws on ideas from management studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and the arts. With cutting-edge methods on the various facets and dynamics of identity, it is integral reading for the future progress of reflexive and dialogical social constructions for studying identity. This refreshing Handbook will be valuable to scholars and students from a variety of disciplines including business and management, psychology and sociology, but with a common interest in studying identity in and around organisations. With consistent practical methodology, consultants, facilitators and management practitioners, who aim to develop identities among individuals, groups, and organisations will also benefit widely from this. Front Matter Copyright Contents Figures Tables Boxes Contributors Acknowledgements by the editors Prologue: studying identities and identity work 1. Introduction to the Handbook of Research Methods for Studying Identity in and Around Organizations PART I NARRATIVE METHODS 2. Plot and storyline analysis of personal identity narratives 3. Exploring identity interplay through performative textual analysis 4. Organizational small storymaking and change: identity work as coming into being in narrative story dynamics 5. The qualitative survey as research design in exploring organizational identity PART II VISUAL METHODS 6. Social dream-drawing: a socioanalytic method for studying identity work 7. A picture is worth a thousand words: social identity mapping as a way of visualizing and assessing social group connections PART III ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS 8. Netnography: a route to explore identity evolution as online videogames develop 9. Mobile interviewing: harnessing the significance of place in identity research 10. The other: posing questions I am supposed to love – autoethnographically exploring identities and identity work 11. Who am I when I am in flow? An introduction to autoethnography as a method for studying identity PART IV EMBODIED METHODS 12. Researching individual somatic identity through movement and dance: body-centred narrative inquiry 13. Examining identity using the creative art of mask-making PART V METHODS FOR ELICITING PERSONAL MEANINGS 14. Repertory grid for exploring managers’ identities in a coaching programme 15. A portrait in words: using self-characterization sketches as an innovative method to explore work identities 16. A multi-method approach for studying conscious and unconscious identity work PART VI METHODS FOR ANALYSING NATURALLY OCCURRING DATA 17. Using membership categorization analysis to study identities in talk and text 18. Autobiographies and identity: using autobiographies to study identity in organizational research 19. Assessing collective identity (non-)verification with social media data through web scraping, sentiment analysis, and qualitative coding Epilogue: towards a methodological roadmap and beyond Index This practical yet cutting-edge Handbook includes both established and innovative methods for studying identity in management, organisations, and cognate fields. Incorporating a breadth of narrative, visual, ethnographic and embodied methods, as well as ways for analysing naturally occurring data, this Handbook offers exciting new interdisciplinary perspectives on the study of identity in and around organisations.Notions of identity have gained much momentum in organisation and management studies over the past 20 years, however, identity scholars tend to rely on a limited set of methods in their research. Looking beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries, the Handbook draws on ideas from management studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and the arts. With cutting-edge methods on the various facets and dynamics of identity, it is integral reading for the future progress of reflexive and dialogical social constructions for studying identity.This Handbook will be of use to scholars and students from a variety of disciplines including business and management, psychology and sociology, but with a common interest in studying identity in and around organisations. With consistent practical methodology, consultants, facilitators and management practitioners, who aim to develop identities among individuals, groups, and organisations will also benefit widely from this.