How Organizational Change Disrupts Our Sense of Self
In life, we all play many roles. At home, you may be a husband or a wife, a mother or a father, a caregiver, or any combination of the above. In your community, you can be a neighbor, a volunteer, an activist, and perhaps an organizer. And at work, we have our job titles, which come with a whole host of descriptors. For better or worse, here in America, our professional titles are often our most powerful, most important source of self-identification. At parties, the question that inevitably follows “What is your name?” is not “What do you believe?” or “What makes you happy?”, but “What do you do?”
Clearly, people size us up and determine our value by our occupations (whether that is a fair way to treat each other or not). In fact, at work, our sense of self is so deeply rooted to our roles that we often think of them as one in the same. (Heck, our names and our titles are right next to each other on our business cards, as if one is inseparable from the other.) And the higher up the professional hierarchy we climb, the stronger that identification becomes.
For decades, this reflex to identify with our job titles has served a constructive function. It has provided us with critical ego support. It has given us confidence, clarity, and a sense of purpose. But, as with all things, there’s a downside to this psychological phenomenon. And it’s becoming increasingly pronounced in this age of digitization as the very nature of work itself is shifting under our collective feet.
Automation’s impact on work goes as far back as the advent of the Industrial Revolution, when handcrafting and cottage industry manufacturing gave way to mechanization and mass production. The acceleration of workplace change increased significantly with the introduction of mainframe computer systems in the 1950s and 1960s, personal computers in the 1980s, the Internet in the 1990s, and early artificial intelligence (AI) in the 2000s. The most recent driver of workplace disruption, of course, is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which triggered what now appears to be permanent changes on how and—perhaps most significantly—where many people do their jobs.
We are in a period of transitional change, and corporate leaders must understand and deal with how these changes affect personal identity and job performance. They need to help their employees deal with the existential question: Who am I?
Experts in workplace psychology break job identity down into three major levels, according to Hal Gregerson and Roger Lehman’s article “How Organizational Change Disrupts Our Sense of Self” published in the Summer 2021 issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review. Level One is the most obvious: What tasks does the jobholder perform? We're familiar with this definition as we see it in virtually every job posting: A list of actions a person in this position is expected to perform. As the specifics of work changes, people can be taught to perform new tasks, modify, or even abandon old ones, and learn innovative processes. (This is why continuing education is seen as increasingly critical to professional success.)
The level beneath task is a bit more abstract: Function. This speaks to the question of intent. For example, a doctor can perform many individual tasks in a day’s work but, ultimately, their function is to heal. Likewise, you might say that an attorney’s function is “to advocate” or “to champion.” An IT architect’s function is “to systematize.” As a leader/manager, what is your function? Common answers include, “I lead,” “I inspire,” “I create,” “I support,” “I facilitate,” “I negotiate,” and “I organize.” As the nature of work changes, you will have to return to this question regularly to re-establish or perhaps re-define your professional identity. And you will have to help those workers for whom you are responsible take the same mental and emotional journey. (Task-mastery alone is not sufficient when the tasks themselves are in constant flux.)
Finally, beneath function is the question of purpose. The challenge here is to answer the simple question: Why? Over the past decade, much has been written about the issue of purpose and, more specifically, employee engagement. Study after study has shown that employees, regardless of their status, perform better when they have an emotional investment in the job they are performing.
This goes well beyond the question of money, of “earning a living.” Millennials and Zoomers are particularly committed to finding careers they believe will impact their families, their communities, and their world in measurably positive ways. What particular tasks they must perform on a day-to-day basis aren’t nearly as important as is how their jobs—and their companies as a whole—make them feel.
Once you can define your professional role along these three axes—tasks, function, and purpose—you will be in a better position to see where change is occurring and then make the necessary adaptations. (The same holds for helping your employees adjust.) To help with this process, Gregerson and Lehman advise asking yourself (and your employees) the following types of questions:
What is your formal job title/organizational position?
In that position, what is your role/function?
Why is “role” important to you? What are its benefits? What are its drawbacks?
How do others—both above and below you—in your organization view your role? Is there an agreement between your perception and theirs? If so, why?
Is your role changing? If so, how? (Tasks? Function? Purpose?)
How do you feel about these changes?
What shifts can you make to better align your changing role with your personal expectations, needs, desires, and goals?
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Rapid changes in the workplace are creating a crisis of identity throughout the working world. To ignore this problem is to put your company and perhaps your own psychological well-being at risk. Only by understanding who you are, and how you fit into this world of 2022 and beyond, can you hope to achieve your personal and professional goals as a corporate leader. My team of culture experts have the training and experience to help you and your organization adapt in these challenging times. For more information on our services, please contact me at laura@conoverconsulting.com.