Abstract
This paper is submitted for presentation under the Identity track and includes findings of an interdisciplinary study informed by management literature of engagement, and its intersections with alternative work arrangements and identity work. Organisations are captivated by the idea of engagement, considering sufficient evidence to suggest that engagement can improve performance outcomes and workers wellbeing. However, results experienced by organisations and individuals are mixed, questioning the relevance of engagement as presented in everyday work. This qualitative multiple case study aims at understanding why and how independent professionals (IPros) engage and disengage with their work. Underpinned the study is a process perspective, using Goffman’s (1959) interactionist lenses, as they grapple with what people do to (re)construct their everyday reality so they can carry on with living their lives. Finding generated from in depth interview - qualitative diary - interview with twelve participants working as independent professionals in New Zealand during 2021 to 2022.
The paper present findings of how IPros strategically construct their professional identity to secure their next contract, managing a contradictory context of autonomy and precarity. Professional identity presentation (public image) is then managed through engaging in everyday interactions intended at task performance and relationship trust. Micro analysis of interactions provides with understanding of how engagement is enacted, as detailed classifications of engagement practices and routine. The study also analyses how these actions are used in different types of work interactions.
This paper contributes to identity work and engagement knowledge by offering a processual mode of identity work in which professional identity intentions and public image congruence are managed and controled using engagement practices and routine. The study further provides empiracly derived definitions and classifications of engagement practices and routines and interactions type, illuminating the processual logic of doing engagement in everyday presentations. Finally the study further contribute to current understanding of IPros everday experiences as they nevigate a contredicting context, highlighting divergent interests and social structural considerations for identity presentations.