IDENTITY AS NARRATIVE: PREVALENCE, EFFECTIVENESS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF NARRATIVE … Paper.pdf · ness of narrative identity work in work role tran-sitions. Figure 1 summarizes our

IDENTITY AS NARRATIVE: PREVALENCE,EFFECTIVENESS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF

NARRATIVE IDENTITY WORK IN MACROWORK ROLE TRANSITIONS

HERMINIA IBARRAINSEAD

ROXANA BARBULESCUMcGill University

Self-narratives—stories that make a point about the narrator—help people revise andreconstruct identities during work role transitions. We propose a process model inwhich people draw on narrative repertoires to engage in narrative identity work inrole-related interactions. Using feedback from their interactions, they revise both thestories and repertoires. Successful completion of the transition is facilitated by en-during and coherent repertoire changes to express the new role identity.

Those who do not have power over the storiesthat dominate their lives, power to retell them,rethink them, deconstruct them, joke about them,and change them as times change, truly are pow-erless because they cannot think new thoughts(Rushdie, 1992: 432).

The practices and strategies by which peoplecraft and negotiate work identities are at theheart of a burgeoning stream of research. Inrecent years scholars have paid increasing at-tention to the diverse means people use to craftand negotiate work identities—for example,how they use humor, dress, personal style, andoffice decor to signal who they are to others(Elsbach, 2003; Ibarra, 1999; Kreiner, Hollensbe,& Sheep, 2006; Pratt & Rafaeli, 1997; Pratt, Rock-mann, & Kaufmann, 2006). Accounts, narratives,and other rhetorical strategies form an impor-tant part of this arsenal for identity work (Ash-forth, 2001; Scott & Lyman, 1968; Van Maanen,1998; Weick, 1995). Among rhetorical strategies,telling a “good story” helps people create mean-ing (Gergen, 1994; McAdams, 1996, 1999) and in-creases the likelihood that their identity claimswill be granted (Ashforth, 2001; Van Maanen,

1998). Yet narrative forms of expressing andclaiming identity have not received adequateattention in organizational research.

A self-narrative is a narrative that makes apoint about the narrator (Linde, 1993). Scholarsconcur that self-narratives are both expressiveof and constitutive of identity (Bruner, 1990; Ger-gen, 1994; Josselson, 2004; Lave & Wenger, 1991;McAdams, 1996; Pentland, 1999). Indeed, Mc-Adams defines identity as “the internalized andevolving story that results from a person’s selec-tive appropriation of past, present and future”(1999: 486). Although organizational researchershave noted that people use self-narratives tomanage strain in work identity (Sveningsson &Alvesson, 2003), to explain work role movements(Ashforth, 2001; Ibarra, 2003), and to lay claim tocentral components of work identities (VanMaanen, 1998), we do not yet have a clear un-derstanding of important ways in which self-narrative forms and narrating processes vary,nor do we have conceptual frameworks specify-ing their role in identity construction. As a re-sult, several theoretical issues remain undevel-oped—particularly, the elements of narrativethat allow people to achieve desired identityaims and the dynamics of the process by whichnew narratives are explored and rejected or re-tained for future use.

A concept of identity as narrative, we argue, isespecially critical for our understanding of iden-tity dynamics during macro work role transi-

We are grateful to Ruth Blatt, Olivier Chatain, Otilia Obo-daru, Jennifer Petriglieri, Michael Pratt, Lakshmi Ramarajan,Metin Sengul, David Sluss, Heather Vough, and the par-ticipants at the 2006 POS Conference at the University ofMichigan, as well as former editor Martin Kilduff, formerassociate editor Randall Peterson, and three anonymousreviewers, for their help with earlier versions of this paper.

� Academy of Management Review2010, Vol. 35, No. 1, 135–154.

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tions, defined as passages between sequen-tially held organizational, occupational, orprofessional roles (Louis, 1980a).1 Common ex-amples are organizational entries and exits;promotions, transfers, and demotions; interor-ganizational moves; and occupational changes.During these passages, identity work is requiredto sustain feelings of authenticity, despite thechanges a person is experiencing (Ibarra, 2003),and to fashion a “culturally appropriate self,”complete with stories deemed appropriate by anew professional group or community (Kunda,1992; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Sutton, 1991; VanMaanen, 1998). More insight is needed into themeans by which people “story” their role transi-tions, making use of narrative to instate a senseof continuity between who they have been andwho they are becoming, as well as to obtainvalidation from relevant parties. In particular,scant attention has been devoted to how peopleclaim work identities that are seemingly discon-tinuous, or how they otherwise deviate fromsocially scripted or highly institutionalized tra-jectories (Ashforth, 2001). As nonlinear, discon-tinuous, or boundaryless careers become morecommon (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; Ashforth,Harrison, & Corley, 2008; O’Mahony & Bechky,2006), understanding the variety of means avail-able to people as they construct, alter, and re-vise their work identities is an important andtimely concern.

Building on the literature on work role transi-tions and on narrative theory, we develop a pro-cess model in which people draw from personalnarrative repertoires to accomplish their iden-tity goals in the social interactions that are partand parcel of the macro role transition process.While characteristics of the role transition affectthe prevalence of narrative identity work, at-tributes of the story told and the storytellingprocess in any given interaction vary along di-mensions that impact their effectiveness inidentity work. We propose a dynamic model bywhich successful stories (those that generatefeelings of authenticity and are deemed valid bytheir target audience) are more likely to be re-

tained or embellished for future use. When sto-ries are unsuccessful, in contrast, we postulatethat a person will seek alternative narratives.Over time, adding, subtracting, and revising sto-ries alters the repertoire. In successful transi-tions a narrative repertoire that coalescesaround new and enduring stories about thechanges implied by the transition helps the nar-rator internalize a new role identity and gainpassage through the inclusion boundaries of thenew work organization; incoherent or divergentrepertoires, in contrast, impede or prolong thetransition. Understanding this interplay be-tween interpersonal narration and intraper-sonal repertoire creation allows us to make pre-dictions about identity outcomes of work roletransitions.

With this article we aim to contribute to agrowing stream of literature that links role tran-sitions and identity processes (Ashforth, 2001;Ebaugh, 1988; Ibarra, 1999, 2003). Although it iswell established that people actively engage inidentity work to claim, revise, and alter theirvarious identities (Ibarra, 1999; Kreiner et al.,2006; Pratt et al., 2006), many questions remainabout the means available to people in transi-tion as they experiment publicly with provi-sional identities that serve as trials for possiblefuture selves, along with the consequences ofusing these diverse means for work role transi-tion outcomes. We advance the current litera-ture by bringing to bear a diverse and looselyorganized body of research on narrative to iden-tify narrative identity work as a form of identitywork that is not only particularly prevalent andnecessary in macro work role transitions but, ifsuccessful, ultimately accounts for enduringidentity changes that are observable at the rep-ertoire level. By focusing not just on narrativeidentity work episodes but also on the evolutionof a person’s narrative repertoires, our modelalso answers recent calls for greater attention toidentity’s dynamism over the course of an in-creasingly discontinuous professional life (Ash-forth et al., 2008).

We divide the article into three major sections.In the first we develop the notion of narrativeidentity work. We argue that work role transi-tions are key occasions for narrative identitywork, and we specify the work role transitionattributes and interaction characteristics thatinfluence the prevalence of narrative identitywork. We further propose that effectiveness of

1 We distinguish macro role transitions from both intrarole transitions, which are changes in a person’s orientationto a role already held (Louis, 1980a), and micro role transi-tions, which are psychological movement and (if relevant)physical movement between simultaneously held roles(Ashforth, Kreiner, & Fugate, 2000).

136 JanuaryAcademy of Management Review

narrative identity work is measured against au-thenticity and validation outcomes, and wedraw from the narrative literature to specify keyattributes of narratives and narrative processesthat make for effective identity work in anygiven interaction episode. In the second sectionwe develop the notion of a narrative repertoirethat informs identity work, detail the processesby which the repertoire is modified based onfeedback, and advance ideas about the conse-quences of narrative repertoire processes forwork role transition identity outcomes, includ-ing the internalization of a new role identity andinclusion within a new work or occupationalgroup. The discussion section highlights thecontributions of our thinking for research andtheorizing on work role transitions and on iden-tity work.

NARRATIVE IDENTITY WORK IN WORK ROLETRANSITIONS

Identities are the various meanings attachedto an individual by the self and by others; thesemeanings may be based on the social roles aperson holds—social identities—or on personal,idiosyncratic characteristics the individual dis-plays and others attribute to him or her based onhis or her conduct—personal identities (Ashforth& Mael, 1989; Gecas, 1982). Identities vary alongsuch dimensions as their centrality or impor-tance to the individual, whether they reflect ac-tual or potential achievement, and the extent towhich they are enduring or provisional (Markus& Wurf, 1987; Stryker & Serpe, 1982). There isshared agreement that identities are multiple,mutable, and socially constructed (Baumeister,1998; Cooley, 1902; Goffman, 1959; Mead, 1934)but coexist within a self that integrates diverseexperiences into a unity (Baumeister, 1998; Ge-cas, 1982; Markus & Wurf, 1987).2

Identity work has been defined as people’sengagement in forming, repairing, maintaining,strengthening, or revising their identities (Snow& Anderson, 1987; Sveningsson & Alvesson,2003). Forms of identity work vary, ranging fromdisplays of dress, office decor, and personal ob-jects (e.g., Elsbach, 2003) to such cognitive strat-

egies as ideological reframing and selective so-cial comparison (Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999),searching for optimal balance among multipleidentities (Kreiner et al., 2006), experimentingwith possible selves (Ibarra, 1999), and using avariety of rhetorical devices, including ac-counts, stories, justifications, disclaimers, andother “vocabularies of motives,” to express theidentity problem the individual is facing (Prattet al., 2006; Scott & Lyman, 1968; Snow & Ander-son, 1987; Van Maanen, 1998).

In this paper we introduce the term narrativeidentity work to refer to social efforts to craftself-narratives that meet a person’s identityaims. By self-narrative we mean a narrative orstory—terms we use interchangeably—aboutthe self.3 Despite a diversity of definitionsacross disciplines (e.g., Pentland, 1999; Riess-man, 1993), there is agreement that a narrative isa sequence of events with the purpose of mak-ing a point (Bruner, 1990; Labov, 1972; Weick,1995). These attributes distinguish narrativesfrom other elements of self-referential discourse,such as chronicles, jokes, and explanations(Linde, 1993). Organizational scholars concurthat stories are uniquely suited for makingsense of ambiguous or equivocal situations be-cause they selectively distill fragmented or con-tradictory experiences and information into acoherent portrait (Boje, 2001; Lounsbury & Glynn,2001). In the sections below we develop a set ofpropositions about the prevalence and effective-ness of narrative identity work in work role tran-sitions. Figure 1 summarizes our key arguments.

Prevalence of Narrative Identity Work in WorkRole Transitions

Career theorists have treated macro role tran-sitions as both actual role changes (e.g., Brett,1984; Nicholson, 1984) and as the processes thatprecede and follow a role change (e.g., Ashforth,2001; Hall, 1976; Louis, 1980a); we use the term torefer to a process that may begin long before anactual role change and that often extends sig-nificantly beyond it. Our conceptualization ofthe transition process is situated in a tradition ofsocialization research that argues that identity

2 The self-concept is a dynamic collection of self-representations or identities that regulates an individual’sactions and reactions (for comprehensive reviews seeBaumeister, 1998; Gecas, 1982; Markus & Wurf, 1987).

3 Our definition distinguishes any single self-narrativefrom a life story, which includes a person’s entire set ofself-narratives, as well as the relationships among them(Linde, 1993: 21–25).

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changes accompany macro role transitions; be-cause new roles requires new skills, behaviors,attitudes, and patterns of interpersonal interac-tions, they may produce fundamental changesin an individual’s self-definitions (e.g., Becker &Carper, 1956; Hall, 1976; Hill, 1992; Van Maanen& Schein, 1979).

Various forms of identity work have been as-sociated with macro role transitions. As theymove into a new workplace or role, individualsmay adapt by using a range of methods, includ-ing bringing favorite objects along with them,such as photographs, coffee mugs, and officedecorations, enacting comforting rituals, suchas reading the paper in the morning (Csikszent-mihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981; Silver, 1996), orexperimenting with possible selves (Ibarra,1999). Among diverse forms, however, we pro-pose that self-narration will be particularlyprevalent during macro role transitions becauserole movements involve “not only changes ofaction and demeanor but of the verbalized rea-sons that are associated with them” (Strauss,1977: 102). And while people may engage in nar-rative identity work on a daily basis, its preva-lence and importance wax and wane as a func-tion of significant life events:

During times of significant transition, identitywork may move to the front burner of everydayconsciousness as the person seeks explicitly toalign his or her evolving story with rapidly

changing events and self-conceptions. Duringother periods of marked stability in the lifecourse, however, the person may do no more thanoccasionally tweak and edit the story (McAdams,1999: 486).

Self-narratives are powerful instruments forconstructing a “transition bridge” (Ashforth,2001) across gaps that arise between old andnew roles and across identities claimed andgranted in transition-related social interactions.Such gaps occur throughout the transition pro-cess: when people begin to explore new optionsand must explain both their background andfuture goals (Ibarra, 2003); when they are freshrecruits into a new role, trying to establish theirfooting (Ibarra, 1999; Van Maanen, 1998) or makesense of confusing or unanticipated changes(Louis, 1980b); and when they look back on rolemoves to justify the rationale for the transition tothemselves and others (Ashforth, 2001; Ebaugh,1988). Stories help people articulate provisionalselves, link the past and the future into a har-monious, continuous sense of self, and enlistothers to lend social reality to the desiredchanges. Building on these arguments, we pro-pose that narrative identity work will be partic-ularly prevalent during work role transitions.

Proposition 1: Narrative identity workwill be more prevalent during work

FIGURE 1Prevalence and Effectiveness of Narrative Identity Work in Work Role Transitions


role transitions than in the absence ofsuch transitions.

Role transition characteristics. Work role tran-sitions differ along a number of well-estab-lished dimensions. The magnitude or radical-ness of the change from one role to anotherrefers to the intensity of changes involved in anygiven career transition (Ashforth, 2001; Hall,1976; Latack, 1984) or the degree to which the rolepermits the exercise of prior knowledge, prac-ticed skills, and established relationships(Louis, 1980a; Nicholson & West, 1989). Intercom-pany, function, and profession changes aremore radical than changes within those do-mains. Role changes may also differ in the ex-tent to which they are institutionalized, novel, oridiosyncratic. Noninstitutionalized changes donot form part of an established occupationalladder or organizationally planned career path,and socialization processes are disjunctive—that is, newcomers are not following in the foot-steps of immediate or recent predecessors intheir current organization or occupation (VanMaanen & Schein, 1979). Often, these are careerchanges—for example, when a litigator leaveslaw to run a nonprofit organization, a corporateemployee starts his or her own business, a gov-ernment official enters private industry, or aconsultant becomes a movie producer. Finally,role changes may be desirable or undesirable; asocially desirable transition is one that is gen-erally regarded by members of one’s role set inpositive terms (Ashforth, 2001: 94). A key assump-tion underlying the notion of social desirabilityis that a role transition should representprogress; any regression—loss of status, title, orprestige, for example—represents a deviationfrom what is socially valued and expected.

Highly routine, institutionalized, and desir-able career changes are normative; they requirelittle if any explanation since they are part of anaccepted social order. A succession of jobs thattakes the storyteller from less desirable to moredesirable work, for example, is easily acceptedby the audience because the possibility of pro-gressive change is a powerful motivator of ac-tions in our society (Ashforth, 2001; Gergen,1994). Transitions that depart from establishedconventions, in contrast, typically requiregreater justification to both the self and others:

If someone begins working as a proofreader . . . ,then switches to a job as a copy editor, and moves

to a job as a production editor, people within thatprofessional world would see the succession as acontinuous sequence. But someone who movesfrom a position as a banker to one as a candlemaker is seen as having a large and recognizablecareer discontinuity (Linde, 1993: 151).

Other things being equal, therefore, we expectthat the need for narrative identity work willdepend on attributes of the role transition.

Proposition 2: Narrative identity workwill be more prevalent the more thework role transition is radical, nonin-stitutionalized, and/or socially unde-sirable.

Episode characteristics. Social interactionsvary in their visibility, the stakes involved, andthe relationship between the parties to the in-teraction; these episode characteristics also in-fluence the likely prevalence of narrative iden-tity work.

The public visibility of the interaction affectsone’s motives for the interaction (Leary, 1996: 54)and, therefore, the likelihood that narrativeswill be used in one’s identity work. The morepublic the episode, the more motivated peopleare to manage impressions (Schlenker, 2003)and, thus, the more purposeful or planned theirconstructions. Bill Gates’ dropout story andHewlett and Packard’s garage beginnings, aswell as Barack Obama’s childhood stories, areexamples of self-narratives that are carefullycrafted for public consumption.

More generally, people strive to make goodimpressions when the stakes are high: wheninteracting with high-status, powerful people orkey role set members; when expecting to havefuture contact with the target; and when valuedoutcomes depend on the target’s behavior(Leary, 1996; Roberts, 2005).4 On the one hand,interactions with members of a new role set—superiors, team members, or clients—mightelicit more narrative identity work than interac-tions with familiar contacts, since the focal in-dividual is still unknown to them and they arehigh-stakes audiences for the success of thework role transition. On the other hand, narra-

4 A range of other factors might affect what motives pre-dominate, including situation factors, such as job marketvacancies and promotion prospects, and individual charac-teristics, such as self-monitoring. We discuss these in thediscussion section.


tive identity work may also be prevalent in in-teractions with audiences who are alreadyfamiliar with the storyteller’s skills, accomplish-ments, and personal histories, since the transi-tion may require more “accounting” so as to fitwith what the audiences expect of the personbased on past history, as well as more emo-tional management of the relationship (Goff-man, 1959; Kopelman, Shoshana, & Chen, 2009;Schlenker, 2003). In contrast, people typicallyface fewer constraints with new or distant inter-action partners, who are less likely to questionthe authenticity of a new and different self-narrative (Ibarra, 2003).

Proposition 3: Narrative identity workwill be more prevalent the more thework role transition interaction epi-sodes are high stakes, are visible,and/or concern role set members.

Effectiveness of Narrative Identity Work

Narrative episodes, like all social interac-tions, are evaluated relative to the motives thatengendered them (Goffman, 1959; Leary, 1996).This evaluation, in turn, partly determineswhether the self-narrative will be used again infuture identity work or whether it will be modi-fied or a different story substituted. People en-gage in identity work for both personal and so-cial reasons. While a thorough review ofmotives for identity work in role transition isbeyond the scope of this paper (see Ashforth,2001), we propose that macro role transitionsmake authenticity and social validation motivesespecially salient. Authenticity and validationcorrespond to the identity challenges that, asindicated above, arise in macro work role tran-sitions: bridging past and future identities andassuring that identities claimed in social inter-actions are granted by relevant parties.

Authenticity outcomes. We define authenticityas integrity of self and behavior within andacross situations (Baumeister, 1998) or one’s“true” or “real” self (May, 1983; Rogers, 1959);therefore, authenticity implies some measure ofself-consistency or continuity across time andsituations. Being true to oneself, however, is adynamic process whereby a person remainsfaithful to “oneself as self-same” yet changes“within the cohesion of lifetime” (Ricoeur, 1988:246); the desire to construe oneself as constant

and consistent over time also implies attemptsto achieve ideal and desired future selves(Markus & Nurius, 1986).

Emotional discomfort arises when people areunable to draw a continuous link between oldand new selves, leaving them feeling inauthen-tic (Ibarra, 1999) or devoid of an enduring senseof self (Ebaugh, 1988). Adjusting to new worksettings, for example, is harder when peoplecannot draw on their past as a resource forpresent sensemaking (Beyer & Hannah, 2002).Emotive dissonance also results from discrepan-cies between what people really feel and theimages they feel compelled to convey in socialinteractions (Rafaeli & Sutton, 1989). For in-stance, people attempting radical careerchanges must persuade family, prospective em-ployers, clients, or financiers that the movemakes sense and will work out, even when theythemselves are privately ambivalent about it(Ibarra, 2003). Since macro work role transitions,by definition, entail rupture and discontinuity,we expect that self-perceptions of authenticity(or inauthenticity) are an important outcome ofany storytelling episode.

Validation outcomes. We argue that macrowork role transitions also arouse social motives,particularly the desire to obtain validation aslegitimate role entrants, or at least as plausibleand credible aspirants who deserve help inmaking the transition. Making a macro workrole transition often hinges on obtaining con-crete resources, such as information, leads, joboffers, and favorable terms, as well as diverseforms of social support, including acceptanceand inclusion. A good story helps make thecase—for example, helping entrepreneurs ac-quire the financial resources they need(Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001; Martens, Jennings, &Jennings, 2007) and convincing prospective em-ployers or new role set members that they are agood fit for the job (Ibarra, 2003). If the account ofthe work role transition is persuasive, the iden-tity claimed by the account is more likely to begranted (Bartel & Dutton, 2001; O’Mahony &Bechky, 2006; Scott & Lyman, 1968), as the quotebelow from an investment banker seeking tomove into international development illustrates:

With the nonprofits, the first hour of any interviewwas “Why the heck would somebody with yourbackground and your pay scale be doing this?” Ittook an hour’s worth of credibility building; theyweren’t wondering “What is your background


and what can you offer” but “Are you insane?”(Ibarra, 2003: 108).

Having a story that is not just authentic but alsocredible is especially critical in convincinggatekeepers. As this example shows, validationis a second important outcome of the social in-teractions the person in transition engages in.

It is important to note, however, that valida-tion assessments may be difficult to make un-equivocally since people tend to be biased intheir self-perceptions (Swann, 1983).5 Further-more, audiences do not always provide clearsignals. While some listeners may confrontstorytellers directly when their expectations arenot met (Linde [1993: 17], for example, tells of asituation in which she was corrected by a friendfor producing a story that he judged too acciden-tal and not enough related to her long-standinginterests), others may emit more ambiguous sig-nals or even have norms against confrontation(Snow & Anderson, 1987). In macro work roletransitions a common form of failed validationresults when the listener rejects claims that theskills and competencies a person developed in aprior role are transferrable to or relevant for afuture role (Ibarra & Lineback, 2005). Althoughsome signals of validation—for example, get-ting a second interview or job offer, being in-vited to important events, or being revealed sen-sitive information (Bartel & Dutton, 2001; Lave &Wenger, 1991; O’Mahony & Bechky, 2006)—maybe immediately and objectively discernible, de-crypting others might take time or depend on thepersonal competencies of the storyteller.

Attributes of Narratives and Narrating Process

Not all self-narratives are equally satisfyingor effective in meeting the implicit or explicitgoals that motivated their telling. Drawing fromthe narrative literature, we make three argu-ments about the attributes of narratives andnarrating processes that will affect the out-comes of any given narrative identity work epi-sode. First, a coherent self-narrative depicts acareer as a series of unfolding events that makesense sequentially, in which the protagonist’s

agency provides a key narrative thread orcausal explanation for the story’s events. Sec-ond, a legitimate self-narrative embeds the in-dividual story in a culturally accepted dis-course, facilitating the identity’s granting. Third,a negotiated storytelling process creates condi-tions for the story’s social validation by involv-ing its audience.

Coherence. Coherence refers to the extent towhich a story makes sense on its own terms(McAdams, 1996: 315). A good story hangs to-gether coherently from one episode to the nextso that the turns of events are plausibly ac-counted for and the protagonist acts consis-tently and deliberately from beginning to end.Stories are coherent to the extent that they es-tablish adequate causality for their events andcontinuity of their protagonist (Linde, 1993; Mc-Adams, 1996). Two primary devices for buildingnarrative coherence are plot structure and pro-tagonist agency.

Plot refers to a goal-directed sequence ofevents in which the past is related to thepresent, and from that connection one can ex-trapolate to the future (Gergen, 1994; Weick,1995). Most plots share a three-part structureconsisting of a beginning, middle, and end (Mc-Adams, 1996). The “first act” typically poses adilemma. The middle concerns the protagonist’sjourney. As in all great epics, midway throughthe hero spends a period of time lost, wanderingin the wilderness (Campbell, 1956). This secondact typically ends with a turning point, climax,or catalytic event, as in most stories about majorrole transitions (Ebaugh, 1988; Ibarra, 2003). End-ings resolve the tension built up in the middle.

Through “emplotment”—the process by whichnarratives link temporal events by directingthem toward a conclusion (Ricoeur, 1984)—idiosyncratic actions are woven into a meaning-ful whole (Polkinghorne, 1991). Continuous storylines link events so that the person’s trajectoryremains essentially stable, improves, or deteri-orates in relation to an unchanging goal or out-come (Gergen, 1994). In discontinuous “before-and-after” plots, in contrast, the goal or outcomesought by the protagonist changes, and turningpoints reframe personal hardship or doubt as ameaningful part of a personal odyssey (Ibarra &Lineback, 2005; McAdams, 1999). While both con-tinuous and discontinuous plots can be effec-tive, not all stories have clear plots; rather, theymay be loosely structured, fragmented, or provi-

5 People tend to seek feedback that confirms their self-views, particularly with regard to self views about whichthey are certain, but they tend to be more receptive to dis-crepant information when they do not have definite viewsabout themselves (Swann, 1983).


sional constructions that become more struc-tured as people make sense of the equivocalevents that their stories recount (Bartel & Garud,2009).

Protagonist agency is a second importantmeans of establishing narrative coherence be-cause the protagonist provides the thread thatties together the meaning of the story’s events(Pentland, 1999; Rimmon-Kenan, 1983). The pro-tagonist’s role is to account for any apparentdiscontinuity in the story. For instance, a personmay show that although two professions arenormally discontinuous, they are significantlyrelated (e.g., “I used to be a banker and now I ama candle maker, but really what I liked aboutbanking is just what I like about candle mak-ing,” or “the skills I learned as a banker arehelpful to me now in my candle shop” [Linde,1993: 152–156]). Or a person may instead empha-size the personal values motivating an other-wise difficult to explain role change, as in thestory told by a psychiatrist about why he left astellar career to become a Buddhist monk: “I hada great reputation and was comfortable finan-cially. But that wasn’t enough. . . . None of thatfulfilled my longing for spirituality” (Ibarra,2003: 5). An action-oriented protagonist, like theone in this story, embodies the ideal of self asthe agent of change, in control of life occur-rences and impervious to obstacles and con-straints.

Agentic protagonists help the audience ap-prove of the storyteller’s actions and identifywith him or her. In studies of the persuasivenessof movie scripts, for example, protagonists whochange and grow throughout the movie are as-sessed more favorably by the public than thosewho remain static (Eliashberg, Hui, & Zhang,2007). In his ethnography of the socializationprocess of junior police officers, Van Maanen(1998: 7) found that the more agency the rookiepolice officers displayed in their self-narrative,the more appreciated the story was by their in-tended audience, veteran police officers. Show-ing repeated agency is an important way of con-structing a consistent and authentic self (Cross,Gore, & Morris, 2003; Linde, 1993).

Protagonist agency is critical for explainingwork role transitions because the most powerfulexplanations for choice of profession rest on in-trinsic personal attributes, such as aptitudesand character (Linde, 1993). A scientist turned

entrepreneur who recounts how she always hada commercial knack and decided to follow itdemonstrates greater agency than a peer whotells how he ended up working in universitiesthat encouraged links between academia andindustry. Self-narratives that rely on accidentsor random events as causal mechanisms, in con-trast, often involve a deficient degree of inten-tion or agency by the protagonist, requiring fur-ther accounting (Linde, 1993). However, incertain cases, such as in involuntary or undesir-able transitions, a successful self-narrativemight productively invoke external forces as ex-planations for the role change. For example,blue collar workers who have been made redun-dant might use a narrative that takes the burdenof the account away from the individuals andplaces it on the employer, the government, or theglobalization of the markets (Newman, 1999).Whether or not self-narratives with agentic pro-tagonists will be more effective, therefore, willbe moderated by social desirability of the workrole transition.

Proposition 4: In work role transitions,self-narratives with structured plotsare more likely to achieve authentic-ity and validation outcomes than un-structured narratives.

Proposition 5: In work role transitions,self-narratives with agentic protago-nists are more likely to achieve au-thenticity and validation outcomes insocially desirable work role transi-tions, but are less likely to do so whentransitions are socially undesirable.

Legitimacy. People tell stories about who theyare and how they became that way by referringto existing social narratives and specific cul-tural norms (Callero, 2003; Linde, 1993). Legiti-mate self-narratives embed an individual’sstory in a larger cultural discourse that is easilyrecognizable as part of the “canon” (Chreim,Williams, & Hinings, 2007; Phillips, Lawrence, &Hardy, 2004; Rao, Monin, & Durand, 2003; Somers,1994). By using canonical themes—that is, arche-typal character portrayals, settings, and storylines and institutionalized scripts drawn fromcollective narratives—people increase the legit-imacy of their story (Gergen, 1994; McAdams,1996; Somers, 1994).


Work role transition stories are often builtaround institutionalized scripts based on myth,folklore, or contemporary culture, such as heroicquests, coming-of-age stories, and rags-to-riches plots (Campbell, 1956; Gergen, 1994; Mc-Adams, 1996). For instance, the story of how aperson became an entrepreneur is likely to bemore effective in identity work if it resemblesstereotypical anecdotes of the “Americandream” or Horatio Alger rags-to-riches storyline; unsurprisingly, this story line is prevalentin entrepreneurs’ self-narratives (Czarniawska-Joerges & Wolff, 1991). Likewise, plots about“wandering in the wilderness” before findingone’s true purpose are common in career changenarratives (Ibarra & Lineback, 2005). Stories toldin familiar, culturally accepted plots and con-taining archetypal characters are more convinc-ing than stories that do not follow agreed uponcultural rules (Bruner, 1990; Cruikshank, 1997).

Self-narratives also indicate how a personpartakes of a common set of narrative resourcesunique to the particular organizational group heor she belongs to or seeks to join. Recoveringalcoholics, for example, learn to tell their story“the AA way” by including canonical elementsof plot, such as “hitting bottom,” while newcom-ers to Codependents Anonymous adopt refer-ences to dysfunctional families as a constantfixture of their life stories (Holland, Lachicotte,Skinner, & Cain, 2001; Irvine, 2000; Lave &Wenger, 1991; Snow & Machalek, 1984). Kunda,Barley, and Evans found that technical workersmaking the transition from salaried employ-ment to contract work told stories with a com-mon script:

The narrative begins with the lament of an expertfor whom the tension between the ideal of tech-nical rationality and the political reality of orga-nizational life has become a source of simmeringdiscontent. Then, an employer’s action or an un-anticipated event that undermines job securityleads the expert to act on his or her discontent.Aided by serendipitous encounters with theworld of contracting, the expert finally chooses toescape the world of full-time employment into theworld of contingent work, which promises a wayof life more consistent with the expert’s world-view (2002: 240–241).

We argue, therefore, that making a macrowork role transition also entails learning andadopting culturally sanctioned stories and storyelements; stories that reflect these influences

will be more legitimate and, thus, more effec-tive.

Proposition 6: In work role transitions,self-narratives that contain elementsof cultural archetypes are more likelyto achieve authenticity and validationoutcomes.

Audience participation. Most storytelling isdone in conversation and involves the listeners(Boje, 1991; Linde, 1993). Audiences are not onlysensitive to a good story (Eliashberg et al., 2007;Green & Brock, 2000) but often act as coproduc-ers, joining in the story’s telling by advancingcorroborating points and obliging the narratorto compromise on certain stances or to find mid-dle-ground positions (Boje, 1991; Linde, 1993; Pol-letta & Lee, 2006).

How a story is negotiated shapes its form andevaluation (Barry & Elmes, 1997; Boje, 1991;Linde, 1993; Scott & Lyman, 1968). The negotia-tion process directly influences the coherenceand legitimacy of a self-narrative as audiencescue the storyteller, interject their own data, and,if necessary, guide the story toward more sub-culturally appropriate plots and morals. In theprocess known as “scaffolding,” veteran mem-bers of established communities build on theappropriate parts of novices’ stories while ignor-ing the inappropriate story parts (Holland et al.,2001). If a newcomer to Codependents Anony-mous searches for the origin of her codepen-dency problem in recent events of her life, forexample, the audience will suggest that thelikely cause is something that happened in herchildhood (Irvine, 2000). Lave and Wenger’s de-scription of what occurs when a new member ofAlcoholics Anonymous is called on to talk abouthis or her life illustrates the notion of audiencenegotiation:

One speaker follows another by picking out cer-tain pieces of what has been said, saying why itwas relevant to him, and elaborating on it withsome episode of his own. . . . Other speakers willtake the appropriate parts of the newcomer’scomments, and build on this in their own com-ments, giving parallel accounts with different in-terpretations, for example, or expanding on partsof their own stories which are similar to parts ofthe newcomer’s stories, while ignoring the inap-propriate parts of the newcomer’s story (1991: 83).

The most important aspect of the negotiationprocess is achieving agreement on the story’s


moral or main point (Bruner, 1990; Linde, 1993).The moral casts light on how the narrator under-stands himself or herself and how the audienceshould understand him or her, and it sets thestandards against which the story can be eval-uated (Linde, 1993; Pentland, 1999). Since a storyalways invites reconstrual of what might havehappened (Boje, 1991; Bruner, 1990), it is up to thenarrator to highlight those intentions and ac-tions of the hero that are most likely to triggerthe desired interpretation by the audience andto signal what kind of response he or she de-sires; it is up to the audience to indicate under-standing and acceptance or, alternatively, to ex-press disagreement (Linde, 1993). Since peoplerely on others’ reactions to confirm their self-views (Down & Reveley, 2009; Goffman, 1959;Mead, 1934), achieving agreement on the morallends weight to the identity claimed in that in-teraction.

Proposition 7 In work role transitions,narrative identity work processes thatare participative are more likely toachieve authenticity and validationoutcomes than narrative processesthat do not involve the audience.

EVOLUTION OF NARRATIVE REPERTOIRE ANDCONSEQUENCES FOR WORK ROLE

TRANSITION OUTCOMES

People have not one but many coexisting self-narratives that ensure a flexible presentation ofself (Bateson, 2004). They engage in a dynamicprocess of crafting stories about new events andreinterpreting favorite, often repeated storylines, and they tell different versions of theirstories to different audiences (Boje, 1991; Linde,1993). We propose that the variability peopleneed to tell appropriate stories in different con-texts is provided by a narrative repertoire thatinforms and guides narrative episodes. This no-tion of self-narrative repertoire is related to theidea of interpretive repertoire in discursive psy-chology—a register of terms and metaphorsfrom which people draw selectively to charac-terize and evaluate actions and events (Edwards& Potter, 1992; Potter & Reicher, 1987).

We further propose that narrative repertoiresconsist of previously told stories and the actualbehavioral “tools” needed to convey them orvary their form from one situation to another—

for example, attitudes, styles, self-presentationtactics, language, demeanor, and so on.6 Takinga humorous tone in telling a story, for example,is likely to produce a different effect than tellingthe story dramatically. Repertoires may also in-clude provisional narratives or story fragments,such as events and personal anecdotes thathave not yet been structured into beginning-middle-end sequences, familiar institutional-ized scripts and cultural archetypes, and thestories one has heard others tell about relatedexperiences. Repertoires allow people to pickand choose narrative elements according to thecontext and purpose of the interaction. Having arepertoire, therefore, implies active selection ofsome stories and omission of others in any givencircumstance. In the remainder of our paper,therefore, our focus shifts from the interpersonalidentity work episode to the evolution of theintrapersonal narrative repertoire over time andits consequences for work role transition out-comes. The two levels of outcomes are linked:the authenticity and validation outcomes of anygiven narrative episode ultimately affect iden-tity internalization and identity acceptance out-comes of the transition by way of the proposedrepertoire processes. Figure 2 depicts our pro-posed process model.

Narrative Evaluation and Retention

Like the stories within them, self-narrativerepertoires are dynamic entities that evolve aspeople encounter new circumstances and con-struct provisional identities. People acquire anddevelop discursive elements for their narrativerepertoires directly, through interactions withothers (Creed, Scully, & Austin, 2002; Edwards &Potter, 1992), and indirectly, through their partic-ipation in a range of cultural activities, such asreading fiction and biography and watchingfilms or the news (Swidler, 1986), as well as viatheir sensemaking efforts in the wake of signif-icant events (Ebaugh, 1988; Louis, 1980b; Weick,1995). Our model proposes feedback loops ordouble interacts (Weick, 1979) between narrativeidentity work episodes and repertoire processesover time, as unsuccessful episodes lead people

6 Our notion of narrative repertoire is akin to Swidler’s(1986: 273) idea of a “toolkit” of “habits, skills and styles fromwhich people construct strategies of action” and which theymodify to varying degrees with experience.


to add to or draw alternatives from their evolv-ing repertoires and as successful episodes rein-force existing contents.

As discussed above, people evaluate narra-tive identity work episodes based on internal(authenticity) and external (validation) criteria.People compare the identity negotiated in nar-rative form with their private representations ofthe kind of person they “really” are or would liketo be; a self-narrative episode that reaffirms orclarifies personal self-conceptions is more likelyto create the conditions for perpetuating theself-narrative in further interactions than onethat does not. By the same token, people evalu-ate their stories by gauging their audiences’ re-action; audiences affect the fate and evolution ofa self-narrative by validating or failing to en-dorse its premise and by providing feedbackabout how to improve the story (Linde, 1993).Authenticity and validation criteria are related,since how others see us matters for how weultimately come to see ourselves (Baumeister,1998). When communicators experience theirmessage as creating a shared reality with theaudience, they see the message as more reliableand valid (Echterhoff, Higgins, & Groll, 2005). Inthe course of work role transition-related epi-sodes, stories that feel authentic and are vali-

dated are more likely to be told again in futureepisodes than stories that feel contrived or donot meet audience approval.

Proposition 8a: In work role transi-tions, self-narratives that achieve au-thenticity and validation outcomesare more likely to be added to a per-son’s narrative repertoire than thosethat do not.

Proposition 8b: In work role transi-tions, self-narratives that do notachieve authenticity and validationoutcomes are more likely to be revisedor discarded from the repertoire thanthose that do.

Narrative Repertoire Attributes

The process of narrative evaluation and selec-tion proposed above has consequences for at-tributes of a person’s narrative repertoire—notably, its variety and coherence. A variednarrative repertoire allows people to customizestories to specific audiences, selecting differentepisodes of their lives to make the same point orto make different points to flesh out a consistentcharacter profile (Ashforth, 2001; Brown, 2006;

FIGURE 2Evolution of Narrative Repertoire and Consequences for Work Role Transition Outcomes


Linde, 1993). Linde, for example, describes themany different stories she tells about why shebecame a linguist: “The existence of so manymultiple accounts seems to assure that thechoice of profession is well-motivated, richly de-termined, and woven far back in time” (1993:5–6). Likewise, business school academics, forinstance, may offer alternative self-narrativesthat emphasize differently the importance ofteaching, research, and consulting work, de-pending on whether they address an audienceof students, scholars, or corporate clients(Brown, 2006: 739).

Having access to a variety of institutionalizedscripts may also be critical for accomplishingone’s identity aims. Managers who become un-employed, for example, are often portrayed as“falling from grace,” partly because the narra-tive customarily available to managers is one ofmeritocracy, self-belief, and diligence; this insti-tutional script is not useful for the subsequentjob search because it places the blame for thelayoff on the individual (Newman, 1999). Tocounter the effect of a tainted institutionalizedscript, a standard story line might be substitutedfor another—for instance, an ousted executivemight regain heroic stature by finding plausiblemotives that exclude assuming responsibilityfor the downfall (Sonnenfeld & Ward, 2007) orreverting to a redemption narrative of self-renewal following a downfall (Gergen, 1994; Mc-Adams, 1999).

But although people tailor stories to their au-dience, too much variation can be problematic.Having vastly different coexisting self-narra-tives may conflict with one’s desire to maintainone’s own integrity, since perceptions of self-coherence depend on one’s ability to integratediverse experiences into a unity (Baumeister,1998). When people craft vastly different storiesfor the different career paths they are exploring,for example, they also often report feeling “rud-derless,” as one career changer reported: “It con-cerns me that I’ve opened the array of possibil-ities so broadly. . . . I wonder do I really knowwhat is my identity? How do I define myself, andhow do others define me?” (Ibarra, 2003: 157).Clashing self-narratives may also be unsustain-able across multiple interactions because recip-ients may cross-check and react negatively ifthey discover wide inconsistencies (Vinitzky-Seroussi & Zussman, 1996). The usefulness of anarrative repertoire, therefore, depends on its

coherence such that component stories do notcontradict each other but, rather, hang togetherplausibly (Linde, 1993). In sum, the more variedthe narrative repertoire, the greater the possibil-ity for situational adaptation and innovative re-sponse, but, at the same time, variety increasesthe danger of inauthenticity across different ep-isodes.

Proposition 9: The more varied one’snarrative repertoire, the greater thelikelihood one will achieve validationoutcomes in narrative identity workduring work role transitions.

Proposition 10: The more coherentone’s narrative repertoire, the greaterthe likelihood one will achieve au-thenticity outcomes in narrative iden-tity work during work role transitions.

Evolution of Narrative Repertoire

As new stories are added or revised in theselection processes descried above, the varietyand coherence of a person’s narrative repertoiremay also change. Bateson (2004) suggests thatresearch on the evolution of identity might dis-tinguish periods during which identity aims arebest accomplished by telling variations on thesame basic story line from periods in which aportfolio of different stories is needed. Buildingon Corley and Gioia’s view that the transitionprocess entails “moving from an existing clarityof understanding to doubt, uncertainty, and/orambiguity, and ultimately to a state of renewedclarity that resolves into an altered form” (2004:174), we argue that narrative repertoires simi-larly evolve with the transition, with multipleand inconsistent stories initially allowing peo-ple to test provisional or equivocal constructionsbut, over time, in successful transitions, adher-ing to variations on a common theme.

The mechanisms by which this convergenceoccurs are practice and feedback. Early in thetransition process, people may feel uncertain oftheir own identity and, as such, experiment withdiverse and even contradictory possible selves;each alternative under consideration requires adifferent narrative, and even a single alterna-tive might be justified by a number of divergentstories (Ibarra, 2003). As people progress throughthe role transition, their initial intuitions aboutwhat might be plausible or appealing become


grounded in direct experience. They also en-counter multiple occasions in which they areasked to tell their story. Repeated storytellinghelps speakers identify their own preferencesand learn competing interpretations, unfamiliarviews, and others’ stories (Polletta & Lee, 2006;Weick, 1995). As people increase their under-standing of what elements they can use to cre-ate stories that are validated and feel authentic,they discard earlier, more provisional narrativesor structure them into more coherent tales. Forexample, Ibarra describes the iterative processby which an aspiring money manager devel-oped a story about why she was leaving anacademic career:

June’s attempts at explaining herself—why shewanted to make such a seemingly crazy careerchange, why a potential employer should take achance in her, why she was attracted to a com-pany she never heard of a day before—were atfirst provisional, sometimes clumsy ways of rede-fining herself. But . . . she experimented with dif-ferent versions of her story, each time gettingfeedback on what her audience found plausibleand what made her more or less compelling as ajob candidate (2003: 60–61).

Narrative repertoires, therefore, undergochanges over the course of a work role transitionas people encounter many situations in whichthey are asked to explain themselves. Theserepertoire changes may be because people re-tain new stories about meaningful events thatoccurred in the course of the transition and/orreinterpret past events, therefore revising oldstories about those events. If identity work usingold or new stories is effective over multiple ep-isodes, these changes will likely be enduring,coherent, and in the direction of the new workrole identity. If the identity work is not success-ful, however, any changes to the narrative rep-ertoire are likely to be provisional, inconsistent,and/or at odds with the new work role.

Proposition 11: Effective identity workover multiple episodes during workrole transitions will lead to enduringand coherent changes to one’s narra-tive repertoire so as to express the newidentity.

Consequences of Narrative RepertoireProcesses for Work Role Transition Outcomes

From telling a story about the self thereemerges a sense of self (Ricoeur, 1988). In this

final section we make the link between the nar-rative processes described above and identityoutcomes of the work role transition. Of course,not all work role transitions result in identitychanges: outcomes may range from situationswhere role innovation occurs without personalchange (Nicholson, 1984) to full identity transfor-mation (Ashforth, 2001), and repeated failure inclassic narrative situations such as job inter-views, professional events, and networking en-counters may lead individuals to abandon at-tempts to enter or establish themselves in agiven profession.

The proposition that narrative mechanismsdirectly account for identity change is squarelygrounded in a vast body of literature indicatingthat overt behavior, such as storytelling, poten-tially changes self-conceptions through inter-nalization and reflected appraisal processes(Bem, 1972; Cooley, 1902; Mead, 1934; Tice, 1992).Self-narratives that can be justified as represen-tative of enduring identities are more likely tobe internalized than those that clearly contra-dict private self-beliefs (Schlenker, 2003). Like-wise, social feedback produces gradualchanges in identity, because people replicatebehaviors that win them approval and seek al-ternatives to those that do not (Dutton & Duk-erich, 1991). Telling one’s story in culturally res-onant ways catalyzes the support of thecommunity, which, in turn, helps newcomersfeel a greater sense of belonging within thecommunity (Holland et al., 2001; Lave & Wenger,1991).7 Identities claimed successfully across arange of social interactions become more sa-lient and central; identities premised on few orperipheral relationships, in contrast, remain pe-ripheral (Stryker & Serpe, 1982).

Building on the argument made above thatnarrative repertoires adjust so as to reflect theevolution of a person’s sense of self, we proposethat evidence of identity change in work roletransitions consists of enduring and coherentchanges to a person’s narrative repertoire. Pro-visional narratives become more structured intoa clear beginning-middle-end format, and whilestory variations remain or even multiply, vari-

7 This does not mean that all newcomers to a workgroupwill internalize the same work role identity. Successful self-narratives personalize social identities, illustrating commoncultural values with unique personal traits and histories(e.g., Van Maanen, 1998).


ants unite around a common theme that hasbecome self-defining. The consequences of suchamendments are more profound than the simpleaddition of a new favorite story; the repertoireitself must also shift so as to take into accountrelationships among its diverse narratives(Linde, 1993). For example, incorporating a newsuccessful story about “why I left my career as abanker to become a candle maker” or “how aquant jock like me became a people manager”will likely lead to alterations in related storiesalready in the repertoire (e.g., about early child-hood interests, family relationships, or educa-tional choices) so that they are consistent withthe choices and meanings of the work role tran-sition. Alternatively, incorporating a new storythat makes sense of an unsuccessful transitionwill increase the salience of stories and eventsthat highlight the misfit of the new role withthe person’s other life commitments, choices,or values.

A narrative repertoire that coheres aroundconsistent and compelling stories that justifythe transition, we suggest, helps the personcomplete the transition, internalizing the newwork identity and penetrating the informal in-clusion boundaries of a new work or occupa-tional group. Alternatively, role identities aremore likely to remain provisional and the workrole transition incomplete or unsuccessful incases of failure to develop a narrative repertoirethat adequately explains the transition acrossdifferent situations and audiences or one inwhich its various stories are at odds with eachother.

Proposition 12: In work role transi-tions, internalization of a new roleidentity and acceptance in the newworkgroup depend on enduring andcoherent changes to one’s narrativerepertoire so as to express the newidentity.

DISCUSSION

By opening gaps between past and futureselves and between identities claimed andgranted in social interactions, the work roletransition process presents multiple and variedoccasions for narrating oneself. Our model ar-gues that people draw from an evolving narra-tive repertoire to engage in narrative identity

work so as to bridge these gaps as they arise insocial interaction. If the variant of “one’s story”told in any given episode generates feelings ofauthenticity and is validated by its target audi-ence, it is more likely to be retained and embel-lished for future use. Otherwise, the person willseek alternative narrative material. Character-istics of the role transition and of the interactionepisodes are key influences in this process. Insuccessful transitions a coherent and compel-ling narrative set emerges from repeated inter-action and revision, helping the narrator to in-ternalize the new role identity and gain passagethrough the inclusion boundaries of the newwork or occupational group. Alternatively, pas-sages that do not find plausible or consistentnarratives remain incomplete or fail.

Our notion of narrative identity work and ourprocess model contribute to the literature onwork role transitions in several important ways.Although the role of narrative in making senseof role transitions has been noted (e.g., Ashforth,2001; Ebaugh, 1988; Ibarra, 2003), testable linksbetween narrative variables and transition pro-cesses or outcomes have been lacking. Ourmodel specifies what makes for a good storyand storytelling process and how these at-tributes correspond to the psychological and so-cial challenges of macro work role transitions.More important, our perspective suggests thatthe evolution of identity in role transition ismatched and evidenced in a parallel evolutionof the person’s narrative repertoire such that itsvarious components eventually coalesce aroundthe new self-understandings that result from thetransition.

While these ideas are applicable to a range ofrole transitions, our propositions are especiallygermane for understanding discontinuous, unin-stitutionalized, or traditionally undesirabletransitions—passages that are increasinglycommon today yet understudied relative to moreformal and routine organizational passages. Forexample, researchers agree on the key role ofsignificant events or turning points in helpingpeople make and explain voluntary role exit(e.g., Ashforth, 2001; Ebaugh, 1988; Ibarra, 2003).Yet how self-narratives matter beyond the ac-tual events they narrate has not been treated insufficient depth. By specifying in testable formhow events serve as raw material for narrativeidentity work that must meet certain require-ments if it is to achieve its goals, we put “skin on


the bones” of the frequently cited enactmentperspective—that is, the idea that “people learntheir identities by projecting them into an en-vironment and observing the consequences”(Weick, 1995: 23).

Moreover, while current theorizing highlightshow people use narratives retrospectively—tocreate continuity and to make sense of com-pleted role transitions (e.g., Ashforth, 2001; Ni-cholson & West, 1989)—our model also informsour thinking about how narrative facilitates rup-ture, allowing people to drive their story’s actionprospectively, toward possible but tentativeselves. The idea that midtransition narrativeswill tend to be more provisional and less con-sistent with other repertoire stories than thoseconstructed post hoc, when the narrator knowsthe end point of the story (Bartel & Garud, 2009;Weick, 1995), sheds light on the state of uncer-tain identity in which people midtransition re-port feeling “in a vacuum,” “in midair,” “neitherhere nor there,” and “at loose ends” (Ebaugh,1988; Ibarra, 2003). By the same token, our per-spective suggests that uncertainty is resolvedand the transition completed not when an actualrole change occurs but when a person is finallyable to resolve the conflict and contradiction inhis or her narrative repertoire. Our argumentthat evidence of identity change consists of en-during and profound amendments to one’s nar-rative repertoire is a novel contribution to liter-ature that has been especially vague withregard to what constitutes the end point of awork role transition (see Ashforth, 2001, and Ash-forth et al., 2008, for reviews).

The notion of narrative identity work devel-oped here also contributes to a broad but“loosely organized” (Pratt et al., 2006: 238) bodyof literature on identity work in at least threeimportant ways. First, we name and flesh out anunderspecified but important category of iden-tity work. Our model identifies the specific nar-rative mechanisms through which identities areconstructed, distinguishes these from other rhe-torical devices, and provides a conceptualframework for analyzing antecedents and con-sequences of narrative identity work. Second,we answer recent calls for greater attention tohow cultural forces impact identity dynamics(Chreim et al., 2007) by specifying the impor-tance of institutionalized scripts on the raw ma-terial available for and the effectiveness of nar-rative identity work. Third, and perhaps most

important, as Ashforth et al. (2008) note, surpris-ingly little research captures the dynamics of alife’s alternating periods of identity stabilityand change. Much empirical and conceptualwork on identity work (e.g., Pratt et al, 2006;Snow & Anderson, 1987; Van Maanen, 1998) of-fers a static picture of how people respond to theidentity challenges they experience at a partic-ular point in their lives. Our model, in contrast,focuses on the interplay between these day-to-day negotiations and the accumulated under-standings of a whole life’s experience.

The concept of a narrative repertoire, consist-ing of established and provisional stories, storyfragments, and institutional scripts from whichpeople draw to make narrative identity claimsin social interactions, and which evolve as thetransition process unfolds, is a final area of con-tribution that we would like to highlight. Whilenotions of repertoire abound in both discursivetheory and occupational sociology, the rhetori-cal properties and evolutionary dynamics ofpersonal resources for identity work have beenunderspecified. Our conceptualization of narra-tive repertoire builds on and contributes to astream of socialization research that highlightsthe role of individual agency in constructingself-tailored identities within the constraints ofwell-defined occupational norms (e.g., Chreimet al., 2007; Fine, 1996; Ibarra, 1999; Rao et al.,2003). Fine (1996), for example, showed howcooks pick and choose among “bundles of im-ages” or repertoires of occupational rhetorics todefine their work identity and to respond to dif-ferent situation needs, and Chreim et al. (2007)described how doctors reconstruct identities toadapt to changes in their institutional environ-ment. None of these studies, however, specifiesthe interaction dynamics by which an individu-al’s own narrative repertoire shifts in responseto changes in the institutional environment soas to reinforce or transform work identities.

Individual and Situational Influences

Because our purpose in this paper has been tobring narrative scholarship to the literature onidentity work in work role transitions, the modelproposed here focuses exclusively on immedi-ate influences on narrative identity work. Amuch broader literature on individual differ-ences that potentially affect storytelling propen-sities, aptitudes, and styles can inform the dy-


namics depicted in our model (e.g., Ashforth,2001; Baumeister, 1998; Leary, 1996). Self-moni-toring and public self-consciousness are associ-ated with the propensity to engage in impres-sion management or to monitor one’s publicperson (Carver & Scheier, 1985). More generally,learning styles, self-monitoring, public self-consciousness, and desire for feedback accountfor variation in responses to new role de-mands—in particular, the extent to which peo-ple innovate or conform (Ashford & Taylor, 1990;Bell & Staw, 1989; Nicholson, 1984).

Likewise, a number of situational factors arealso likely to influence the resources and mo-tives with which people enter a narrative epi-sode. Both narrative repertoires and identityconstruction strategies are likely to vary de-pending on the characteristics of a person’s rolemodel set and professional networks (Ibarra,1999), and these, in turn, are heavily influencedby attributes of the organizational and profes-sional settings in which relationships areformed and maintained.

Implications for Future Research

Our perspective on the role of narrative pro-cesses in identity change can inform future re-search on the various manifestations of theboundaryless career (Sullivan & Arthur, 2006).Investigating sources and consequences of hav-ing multiple self-narratives, for example, is es-pecially germane as people make more frequentand unconventional career changes. While aconsistent narrative told across diverse socialcircles consolidates identity, it also constrainsthe person to live up to the self he or she hasclaimed to be; alternatively, different interpreta-tions help people construct different futures(Bateson, 2004: 69). Further research is alsoneeded to understand when narrative varietyproduces feelings of inconsistency or inauthen-ticity and when, instead, creating variety is aprerequisite for crafting an authentic yet differ-ent or changed self. While numerous scholarshave argued that there are advantages to hav-ing multiple versions of one’s life story, the con-ditions under which multiplicity is more or lessbeneficial remain to be investigated.

Research on narrative repertoires at the insti-tutional level might further explore how institu-tionalized scripts emerge or change and becomea common fixture of role occupants’ repertoires.

Rao et al. (2003), for example, demonstrated howidentity movements create institutional gapsand give rise to new logics that are dissemi-nated via models and stories, and Kunda et al.(2002) described the emergence of a new script toexplain the trend toward freelance work in tech-nical workers. Our perspective follows in thetradition of the Chicago sociologists, whoviewed adult socialization as learning sanc-tioned accounts that “enabled individuals toalign themselves with the events of their biog-raphies” and, as such, justify their position inthe social order (Barley, 1989: 49). Our theorysuggests that institutionalized scripts might be-come even more important for identity construc-tion efforts as the prevalence of boundarylesscareers increases, since the greater the magni-tude or discontinuity of the role change thegreater the need to justify it with a socially ac-ceptable script. Future research is needed toexplore the occupational contingencies thatlead to the establishment of new institutional-ized scripts and repertoire alterations at the oc-cupational level, as well as the extent to whichthe current times are producing an increasingstock of institutionalized “transition” or “careerreinvention” stories.

Future empirical work might also explore howthe effectiveness of self-narratives is contingenton the type of work role transition and on thecultural contexts in which the transition occurs.As discussed above, different narrative formsand processes explain transitions that are “up-ward,” into managerial roles or higher-statusoccupations, or “downward,” into lower-statusoccupations or unemployment. The cultural con-text in which the transition is taking place mayalso create contingencies in the importance ofthe attributes of narratives and narrative pro-cesses we highlighted. Agency and consistencyof self, for example, are particularly valuableelements in Western culture, but they are not ascrucial in East Asian cultures (Cross et al., 2003).

For many people, although certainly not ev-eryone, a job or occupation is a central compo-nent of their understanding of who they are. Asa result, they must be able to tell a good storyabout how they came to do what they do for aliving. As Nicholson and West note, “If workhistories are lifetime journeys, then careers arethe tales that are told about them” (1989: 181). Wehave argued in this paper that narrating the selfchanges the self. Just as people construct work


identities by telling their story, they also rein-vent themselves by telling new stories aboutwhat is happening to them, reinterpreting pastevents in the light of these new understand-ings, and weaving past and present into acoherent repertoire that allows them to com-municate their identity and negotiate it withothers.

REFERENCES

Arthur, M. B., & Rousseau, D. 1996. Introduction: The bound-aryless career as a new employment principle. In M. B.Arthur & D. Rousseau (Eds.), The boundaryless career:3–20. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Herminia Ibarra ([email protected]) is the Cora Chaired Professor of Lead-ership and Learning and professor or organizational behavior at INSEAD. She earnedher Ph.D. from Yale University. Her current research interests include identity dynam-ics, career development, and gender.

Roxana Barbulescu ([email protected]) is an assistant professor of orga-nizational behavior at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management inMontreal. She received her Ph.D. from INSEAD. Her research explores the socialprocesses and personal strategies underlying individual mobility and attainment.


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