KARL MOORE: This is Karl Moore, talking management for The Globe and Mail. Today, I'm speaking to Laura Morgan Roberts, who's recently left the Harvard Business School to join the faculty at Georgia State University. Good afternoon, Laura.
LAURA MORGAN ROBERTS: Good afternoon, Karl.
KM: You've been working for a while on this idea of positive identity. What is a positive identity?
LMR: Well, that's been at the centre of my research, trying to answer that very question. What does it mean to have a positive identity? I've been exploring that in a variety of different ways. What I've focused on a lot, recently, is positive identity at the level of the individual. But we can also talk about what it means for a team to have a positive identity, what it means for an organization to have a positive identity, what does it mean for a society to have a positive identity. Let me talk a little bit about what it means for an individual in an organization to have a positive identity.
KM: So you focus, primarily, on the context of an organization rather than [on the] family or in the neighbourhood, whatever – your focus has been primarily in the organization.
LMR: With respect to the question of positive identity, really focusing on what does it mean to have a positive work-related identity. But let's acknowledge that it's really important to have positive dynamics taking place in all aspects of life to be able to construct a positive work-related identity as well. So, there is some interchange between the domains of life, but we're really focusing on work-related identities.
And one of the exciting projects that I'm working on, as I mentioned, is trying to understand how organizational scholars have talked about, examined and studied positive identity so that we can understand more about how positive identity itself can be a tool or mechanism for generative change and action in organizations.
So, in that work, my colleagues Jane Dutton and Jeffrey Bednar and I have found that – we talk about positive identity in four different ways that depict different sets of assumptions that we have about the very question you asked – what does it mean to be positive?
So, one of the ways that you can think of a positive identity is from a virtue perspective. So, if you have a positive work-related identity, it means that the core, the content of your identity contains character strengths and virtues – courage, humility, authenticity, integrity – you know, the various character strengths and virtues [that] have been highlighted by many scholars for years – theological scholars, philosophers.
Recently, in the domain of positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship, we've tried to understand more about character strengths and virtues and their relevance for our lives in organizations. So, one of the ways that an individual can see themselves as positive or construct themselves in a positive way, is by really defining and understanding the character strengths that are unique and central to their self and, then acting in accordance with those character strengths and virtues.
KM: So, one of the organizational challenges is to help people and allow people to do that.
LMR: Absolutely.
KM: And not, again, in the way of having them act in an inauthentic manner at work because that goes against their positive identity.
LMR : Absolutely, so, one of the sets of practices that we've identified, that can help to cultivate a more virtuous identity, are pro-social practices in organizations – practices that allow individuals in organizations opportunities to participate in helping, [to behave generously and compassionately] and see that their actions are having an impact on others. You know, once they start to see themselves behaving in these ways, and they identify with the organization that is sponsoring – providing the resources, the support and the context for them to do this work – they also start to understand more about who they are in a virtuous way. So, that's one way to tie in an authentic link to a virtuous identity.
