How feeling misidentified can drive negative attitudes yet increase performance: The role of appraisals

Abstract

Internal identity asymmetry is the uncomfortable experience of having one's identity mistaken—feeling being misidentified—by others at work. Through two longitudinal field studies of working individuals, we investigate the consequences of internal identity asymmetry on individuals' attitudes and work performance. Importantly, we incorporate the stress and coping literature to examine how the individual's cognitive appraisal of the asymmetry (of negative affect and coping resources), together moderate the experience. Furthermore, our results also show that appraisals of negative affect and coping resources moderate the relationship between internal identity asymmetry and performance, such that identity asymmetry may also motivate increased performance at work, depending on this appraisal. Our findings shed light on the importance of cognitive appraisal for identity incongruent experiences at work, and how they might be harnessed for positive outcomes depending on appraisal, which can be developed and strengthened over time.

Impact of internal identity asymmetry on employee's behaviors and feelings: A mediating role of psychological distress

“…These findings have implications for organizations and individuals in terms of identifying effective coping strategies to mitigate the detrimental effects of psychological distress on work-related outcomes i.e., individual work performance. This study is consistent with the result of Meister et al (2023) [ 42 ] research. Their study demonstrated that negative affect and coping resource appraisals combined to influence the relationship between internal identity asymmetry and actual performance outcomes.…”

“…We adhered to the prescribed guidelines [ 74 , 101 ] in order to investigate how coping strategies [ 42 ] affect the association between psychological distress (PD) and individual's work performance (IWP) and well-being (WB). According to the findings of the bootstrap analysis following Hair Jr et al (2017) [ 74 ], the confidence intervals (CIs) did not encompass zero, indicating a significant or accepted moderation effect.…”

“…In addition, there is a lack of empirical studies to explore the impact of internal identity asymmetry on their outcomes [ 7 , 24 , 26 , 41 , 42 ]. Hence, this study will explore the causal relationship among internal identity asymmetry with behavior and emotional outcome, i.e., performance and well-being at the workplace, by explanatory research technique.…”