Being an employee-coworker: constructing one’s work identity in a coworking space

Camille Pfeffer () and Isabelle Royer ()
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Camille Pfeffer: MAGELLAN - Laboratoire de Recherche Magellan - UJML - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 - Université de Lyon - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Lyon
Isabelle Royer: MAGELLAN - Laboratoire de Recherche Magellan - UJML - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 - Université de Lyon - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Lyon

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Abstract: The re-spatialization of work implies a hybridization of workspaces, inside and outside companies. Notably, a growing number of corporate employees have joined coworking space to work remotely from their companies for the last years. This experience is not neutral for the construction of their work identity. Our ethnographic research conducted in two networks of coworking spaces led us to observe and question remote workers about their experience and the evolution of their identity at work. Our findings show a process of continuous identity work, with four conscious and unconscious phases induced by using a coworking space. These phases include mechanisms of categorization, territoriality, and social regulation which support employees-coworkers' identity work. This research contributes to the understanding of the unconscious dimension of identity work, particularly in a more flexible and hybrid work context. It also contributes to the literature on the re-spatialized organizational space.

Keywords: identity work; process studies; re-spatialization; coworking space (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-06-18
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Published in PROS Symposium 2023, Jun 2023, Chania, Greece

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-04227262

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