The mirrored self: managing work identity amid audience-led image discrepancies

Work identity—how individuals see themselves at work is closely tied to perceived image, or how they believe they are viewed by their ‘audience’—others at work including supervisors, subordinates and coworkers. While prior research highlights the role of audience feedback in identity construction, less is known about how the audience forms these images, how individuals interpret them, and what happens when perceived image diverges from identity. This dissertation answers these questions through a multi-method investigation. I began with an inductive qualitative examination of how independent workers manage identity and image construction. Drawing on 54 interviews and an ethnography, the findings show that participants started their careers with nebulous or hazy work identities that crystallised through identity granting and acceptance, facilitated by the audience, the market and important milestones. Work identities also developed through personal-to-work identity spillovers, as individuals drew on their personal identities to craft their work identities. Additionally, participants engaged in image curation, showcasing selected aspects of themselves to shape the audience’s image of them. However, participants believed that their audiences engaged in their own construed image work through typecasting—restrictive categorisation, and image extrapolation—expansive categorisation of participants. These processes produced image discrepancies for participants when their perceived images diverged from their actual identities. To examine how individuals respond to image discrepancy more broadly in organisations and other occupations, I developed and validated measures for the two types of discrepancies: positive and negative. Across two survey studies and an experiment, I found that image discrepancy alters how individuals approach their audience through relationship-directed behaviours in organisations. Positive image discrepancy prompted promotion-focused relationship crafting and helping behaviour, with perceived regard and relational identification mediating this effect. Negative image discrepancy led to prevention-focused relationship crafting and intentions to exit the relationship, mediated by perceived regard and identity threat. I discuss the theoretical and practical implications for how individuals respond to and manage the notion that people at work may view them differently than how they view and present themselves.