Conceptualising and Measuring Work Identity: South-African Perspectives and Findings

This book provides a systematic overview on issues and challenges related to work identity and identification at work in the ’new’ South African workplace. It shares results and measures of a work identity research project that was conducted in a variety of modern South African workplaces. It looks at the concept of work identity in the light of a keen and growing interest in why people are becoming attached to, involved in, engaged with, or committed to their work. Still a relatively unexplored concept, built on the foundations of different identity theory streams, the concept of work identity provides a fundamental reconsideration of explaining engaging behaviours at work. Against the backdrop of a changing political and economic landscape and the impact these radical changes had on the South African workplace, the main research question of the project was the South African employees’ question ’Who am I at work?’. In search of the answer to that question, the book explores the impact of South African employees’ life spheres and life roles on their choice of work-related identification foci. It further explores how identity work tactics and strategies are being used to develop and define their own work identities, resulting in the conceptualisation and development of a work-based identity measure.

Paul Jansen (born 1954) is since 1992 Professor of Industrial Psychology within the Department of Management & Organization, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Paul Jansen graduated, cum laude, in 1979, with specialization in Mathematical Psycho­logy (major) and Work and Organizational Psycholo­gy (subsidia­ry) at the University of Nijmegen. He earned his PhD in social sciences in 1983 with a doctoral disserta­tion on a subject in testing and scaling theory. After wor­king at the Ministry of Inner Affairs and at the Psychologi­cal De­partme­nt of the Dutch Civil Service, he joined the Netherlands PTT in 1984. In 1986 he became Head of the Psycho­logical De­partment of PTT Tele­com. In 1989 he joined the recently founded Corporate Staff of Management Develop­ment of the privatized 'Royal PTT Nederland'. Since 1992 is Professor of Industrial Psychology. He teaches Industrial Psychology, Hu­man Resources Manage­ment and Research Methods in Business Administration. From 1995-2001 he was in addition director of the Limperg Institute, the interuniversity institute for research in accountancy. In 2006 he initiated a joint research project on work identity with the University of Johannesburg. Publications in international top journals such as Psychometrika, Applied Psychological Measurement, Applied Psychology: An international Review, Journal of Organizational and Occupational Psychology, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior and Journal of Management Studies.

His research interests are in management development, careers, assessment (e.g. assessment centers, 360-graden feedback) and performance management.

For his scientific work, prof. Paul Jansen obtained the Dutch HRM Network award 2013 at the 8th International Biannual Conference “’H’ versus ‘R’ inHRM” in Leuven, BELGIUM. The mission of the Dutch HRM Network is aimed at stimulating fundamental and societal relevant scientific research in the field of the employment relationship. The HRM Award is presented by the Dutch HRM Network to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the HRM field.

Gerhard (Gert) Roodt has a D Admin in Industrial and Organisational Psychology. He is a licensed psychologist and a registered personnel practitioner. He is author/co-author of about 92 peer-reviewed journal articles and nearly 50 conference proceeding articles; 15 technical reports; and co-editor/co-author of 12 books; author/co-author of 56 book chapters and several articles in non-research based journals. He is also presenter/co-presenter of approximately 120 peer-reviewed papers at national and international academic conferences.

Gert is currently the Vice Dean: Research in the Faculty of Management at UJ. He was the former head of the Centre for Work Performance in the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management.  He is a former chair of the Society for Industrial Psychology (1995-97). He is rated by the NRF as a category C2 researcher. He serves on advisory/editorial boards of nine local and international scholarly journals.

Gert was awarded a fellowship of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology of SA (SIOPSA), as well as of the Pan Pacific Business Association in 2006. He was nominated as a Mentor for the SA Board for People Practices (SABPP) and recently received a lifetime achievement award from the SABPP. He is a member of the following professional associations: US Academy of Management (AoM); International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP); Associate member of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP); SIOPSA; and a member of the SA Academy of Science and Art.  Gert was also a member ofthe National Scholarly Editors’ Forum of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). Gert serves on the Advisory Council of the EAWOP conference organising committee.