Choosing between the territory and the nuclear industry during a career transition. Move towards a hierarchical multiple identification network

Année
2024
Type
Communication orale
Auteur(s)
Sébastien Mainhagu, François Grima
Conférence
Conference of the european academy of management (EURAM), June 24-28, Bath, UK

The case study we propose provides answers to the question of how employees mentally manage career transition by modifying the structuring of their network of identifications. We propose a case study on the redeployment of staff following the announcement of the closure of a French nuclear power station, which was most often experienced as a sudden change, leading to a transformation in the employee’s identity balance with their families. On the basis of forty narratives collected through semi-directive interviews and processed using Gioia’s coding method, we show situations in which there is a shift from alignment to disalignment through a hierarchisation of the multiple identifications that we have identified through four modalities: cognitive, normative, emotional and performative. In addition to bringing together the theories of work identification and multiple identity networks, we show the existence of identification targets (work content and territory), rarely considered for understanding career transitions triggered by an experienced shock.

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