Who am I in placelessness? A polymorphic place-based identity work process

Abstract

This study analyses how employees construct their identities in response to placelessness-related multi-level identity threats. Drawing on a case study of a French banking organization that introduced a multifaceted form of placelessness that eroded workplace authenticity and distinctiveness, the findings reveal that employees draw from evolving micro-processes of polymorphic, place-based identity work to change their threatened multi-level identities. These findings show that the employment of identity work, relying on the synergy between multiple layers of place, enables the protection of multi-level threatened identities, the suspension and relinquishment of threatened personal-level identities, and the restructuring of multi-level threatened identities. This polymorphic place-based identity work process both stabilised and evolved the workplace, highlighting the dynamic relationship between place and placelessness. These findings have important implications for mitigating placelessness-related threats and for understanding the multi-level self in new and positive ways.