Constructing Embodied Organizational Identities: Commodifying, Securing, and Servicing Professional Bodies

Communicative tensions of meaningful work: The case of sustainability practitioners

“…Scholars have long argued that organizational and professional practices are grounded in dominant political structures, drawing from and perpetuating discourses that are raced, gendered and classed in ways that favor status quo identities (Cheney and Ashcraft, 2007; Mumby, 2005). For instance, Trethewey et al (2006) have noted how societal pressures help commodify worker selves, engendering a ‘preferred self’ that workers internalize, which is then pressed into service to meet the organization’s goals. The tension-centered approach highlights how workers engage in such identity negotiation practices that seek to control their meaning-making of work, yet simultaneously resist dominant structures and discourses, deriving meaningfulness from their ongoing tussles with political interests.…”

Creating and Responding to the Gen(d)eralized Other: Women Miners' Community-Constructed Identities

“…The gendered nature of blue-collar work itself creates unique gendered contexts and structures within which individuals' identities must be negotiated. Everyday organizational processes and practices produce social discourses of power that are appropriated, reproduced, and/or transformed in ways that both enable and constrain how members enact their professional identities (Trethewey, Scott, & LeGreco, 2006). This is not intended to mean that individual identities are shaped entirely by work.…”

“…Instead, individuals experience discourses at work that shape socially preferred identities. Further, attempts to develop a professional self often instill a gendered identity in individuals (Trethewey et al, 2006). Whereas bluecollar men have drawn upon the masculine nature of their respective organizations as a source of dignity, blue-collar women are faced with more complicated identity negotiations.…”

(Mis)managed Empowerment: Exploring Paradoxes of Practice in Domestic Violence Prevention

“…Pragmatically, this study draws attention to the communication strategies utilized by employees to navigate the paradoxes. In doing so, this example of problemfocused research of micro-and meso-level organizing practices attempts to translate communication scholarship in a way that could benefit domestic violence prevention organizations (Tracy, 2002;Trethewey, Scott, & LeGreco, 2006).…”