The goal of my research is to discover how to generate extraordinary performance and well-being outcomes in organizations that contain a culturally diverse employee and/or client base. I posit that the key to generating extraordinary outcomes in diverse organizations lies in viewing diverse identity groups, and the individuals who belong to them, as capable and essential resources that create value for organizations. As such, I devote the majority of my research to documenting the process by which identities are socially-constructed such that differences are magnified, discounted, transcended or affirmed in the micro-context of social interaction in work organizations.

I emphasize the “social” aspects of the identity construction process. In this vein, my work is grounded in research on reflected appraisals, which suggests that individuals learn about themselves through the messages that others communicate to them about the meaning, significance and regard of their identity groups. I apply this to the organizational context by describing the mechanisms through which perceptions of competence, character, and fit shape how one experiences him or herself in the context of a work role. I document how positive reflected appraisals help individuals to discover their strengths, capacity, and ability to make a unique contribution to their organizations. I also identify how negative appraisals of an individual and/or the individual’s social identity group(s) can interfere with that individual’s desire to be viewed as technically and socially competent. In this research, I do not take the perspective that individuals are passive consumers or victims of negative messages about their identity and abilities. Rather, I consider individuals to be proactive agents in the co-creation of their identity. I seek to capture the process by which individuals proactively negotiate the meaning, significance and regard of their identities so that others will perceive them as being technically and socially competent.

1. Reflected Best-Self Appraisals and Identity Enhancement

I am working with a team of researchers (Brianna Barker, Kathryn Dekas, Jane Dutton, Emily Heaphy, Brent Rosso, Gretchen Spreitzer, and Bob Quinn) to understand how and why reflected best-self appraisals affect individuals and the relationships between individuals at work. In an Academy of Management Review conceptual paper, my colleagues and I proposed that people discover strengths and added value through social exchanges and feedback processes. In this paper, we introduced the concept of the “Reflected Best-Self”, which we define as a person’s self-construal of how s/he employs strengths and capabilities in order to create a positive experience for him/herself and a constructive experience for others. This strength-based conception of the self is part of our contribution to the body of work on Positive Organizational Scholarship. My colleagues and I have also designed pedagogical tools to incorporate the “Reflected Best-Self Feedback assessment” (a 360-degree feedback exercise that generates information about one’s best-self) in MBA and Executive Education courses Click here to access the assessment tool off of the POS website. An online conference is also available for viewing

We have empirically tested our propositions about the reflected best-self by analyzing the best-self portraits (i.e., narrative essays about the best-self) of 200 MBA students who completed the Reflected Best-Self Feedback assessment. We have coded the portraits to identify patterns in the characteristics people display when at their best and the situations in which they are at their best. We are able to assess the impact of the Reflected Best-Self exercise on identity by comparing two versions of the students’ best-self portraits: the initial portraits they submitted based on their personal reflections of times when they were at their best, and the revised portraits they submitted after receiving contribution stories from others. We find that the reflected best-self exercise enriches and broadens positive self-schemas in ways that enable constructive deviance from certain gendered and professional norms.

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2. Identity Performance as a proactive mechanism for Identity Enhancement

In another stream of research, I integrate social identity and impression management theories to describe how people strategically enact aspects of their identities in ways that establish their credibility as legitimate, capable professionals and increase others’ level of comfort with the dimensions of difference that exist between them. In so doing, I propose that individuals are able to form high quality connections and provide high quality service to diverse clients and colleagues. My colleagues and I (Sandra Cha, Bill Jellison, and Isis Settles) have empirically examined the proposed antecedents and consequences of identity performance and image management for people who experience identity threats: women in science, whose scientist identity is inconsistent with gender stereotypes; Black college students, who experience an inconsistency between their “scholar” identity and racial stereotypes; Black medical students, whose physician identity is inconsistent with racial stereotypes; and Asian American journalists, whose journalism identity is inconsistent with racial/ethnic stereotypes. These data support that individuals engage in identity performance with the expectation that such strategies will enable them to leverage the diversity they bring and to counteract the conflicts that differences may generate in work organizations.

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3. Leveraging Identity to Create Value

I am bringing together work on identity performance, identity enhancement, and diversity management by examining how individuals leverage, or draw upon aspects of their non-work identities to serve as a source of strength that creates value at work. For example, in a forthcoming chapter, Robin Ely and I further explore the negative consequences of being driven by a desire to manage one’s image and protect one’s ego. We offer an alternative approach being driven by ego-centric goals: being driven by outward focused goals for managing identity differences, such as enhancing the quality of relationships, contributions or work. Sandra Cha and I find support for these claims in our study of Asian American Journalists, who draw upon aspects of their racial/ethnic identities as a resource for building high quality relationships, producing high quality work, and navigating “fine lines” imposed by stereotypes and image concerns.

I am particularly interested in identifying strategies for constructively engaging one’s talents, principles, and cultural background to enhance the quality of one’s work and one’s work experience. In pursuing this work, I continue to examine the industry and organizational practices that optimize organizational culture and client service by effectively leveraging diversity. I am focusing on the health care industry to determine how health care providers and distributors can leverage the unique perspectives of a culturally diverse workforce and leadership team to strengthen commitment and deliver more efficient and higher quality patient care. Taken together, this body of work on the social construction of identity extends beyond individual and dyadic processes to address how leaders, organizational members, and clients can collectively foster extraordinary well-being and performance in multicultural organizational settings.

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