Principal speaker
Professor Blake Ashforth
Abstract: Personal identification occurs when one defines oneself, at least partly, in terms of another person. While many scholars have found that personal identification with one’s manager or leader is associated with helpful effects on the follower (e.g., job satisfaction, performance), others have found harmful effects (e.g., dependence, unethical behaviour).
To resolve this contradiction, we distinguish between two processes - defensive and non-defensive personal identification. Events perceived as identity threats trigger defensive personal identification: threats activate a motive for uncertainty reduction, which prompts swift identification with another person to quell anxiety. Defensive personal identification is thus compensatory and fosters what developmental psychologists term “identity foreclosure” (i.e., unreflectively internalising a ready-made identity template), associated with dependence on the other.
Conversely, events perceived as identity opportunities trigger nondefensive personal identification: opportunities activate a motive for self-expansion, where one extends oneself to include the desirable attributes of another. Nondefensive personal identification is thus supplemental and fosters what developmental psychologists term “identity achievement” (i.e., an expanded and more holistic identity), associated with an enriched identity.
Speaker: Blake Ashforth is the Horace Steele Arizona Heritage Chair in the W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, Canada.
His research concerns the ongoing dance between individuals and organisations, including identity and identification, socialisation and newcomer work adjustment, and the links among individual-, group-, and organisation-level phenomena.
Blake is a fellow of the Academy of Management, and has served as an Associate Editor for the Academy of Management Review and Organization Science.
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