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ACHIEVING HOLISM: NARRATING MULTIPLE IDENTITIES IN THE MOMENT AND OVER TIME

delete2026-04-01
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PRE
AI
W
Wittman, Sarah *
I
Ibarra, Herminia
DOI:10.5465/amr.2023.0215delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
People's multiple identities often wax, wane, and are transformed over their lifetimes, both as sources of personal meaning and as realities communicated to others. Yet, despite a research turn toward studying identities as multiple and dynamic, largely still missing is a cohesive view of people's efforts to narratively integrate the sum of their many evolving parts. In this paper, we take a narrative perspective on the notion of identity holism to theorize how people build a meaningful whole by making narrative claims involving 4Cs-credibility, coherence, continuity, and causality. Cutting across these claims are more abstract themes, or leitmotifs, of identity coalescence and coevolution, which are internally experienced as static and dynamic holism, respectively. We discuss how holism, and particularly dynamic holism, fosters personal authenticity, wisdom, adaptiveness, and resilience; the broader contributions of our theorizing to the literatures on identity and narrative; and implications for management and future research.
Keywords:
ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY
AM-I
POSITIVE IDENTITY
MANAGING IDENTITY
WORK
SELF
CONSTRUCTION
EXPERIENCE
MODEL
IDENTIFICATION

Journal

Academy of Management Review cover
Academy of Management Review
IF:
13.9
Papers:
1.2K
Citations:
4.2W

Organization

U
university of london
Scholars:
21.3W
Papers: 19.6W
Citations: 302
A
arizona state university
Scholars:
3.0K
Papers: 1.6K
Citations: 0
A
arizona state university-tempe
Scholars:
1.5W
Papers: 1.2W
Citations: 13
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