TY - JOUR
T1 - From Thriving Developers to Stagnant Self-Doubters
T2 - An Identity-Centered Approach to Exploring the Relationship Between Digitalization and Professional Development
AU - Wallin, Anna
AU - Nokelainen, Petri
AU - Kira, Mari
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - This article reports a study illustrating the relationship between digitalization and professional development from an identity-centered perspective. Drawing on a unique data set of 101 empathy-based stories from 81 Finnish government workers, the findings show how workers might experience and respond to work-identity alignments and misalignments in a digitalized working life and how this might influence their professional development. We identify four typifications—the thriving developer, the loyal transformer, the stagnant self-doubter, and the career crafter— and illustrate how digitalization can either support or hinder professional development by inducing work-identity (mis)alignments and how workers may respond to these in different ways by engaging in identity work and job crafting. In particular, our findings emphasize the role professional identity and agency play in professional development and highlight the importance of recognizing how digitalization of work can threaten or support workers’ professional identities to build a supportive working environment where the workers feel like they are valued and able to develop in a meaningful way.
AB - This article reports a study illustrating the relationship between digitalization and professional development from an identity-centered perspective. Drawing on a unique data set of 101 empathy-based stories from 81 Finnish government workers, the findings show how workers might experience and respond to work-identity alignments and misalignments in a digitalized working life and how this might influence their professional development. We identify four typifications—the thriving developer, the loyal transformer, the stagnant self-doubter, and the career crafter— and illustrate how digitalization can either support or hinder professional development by inducing work-identity (mis)alignments and how workers may respond to these in different ways by engaging in identity work and job crafting. In particular, our findings emphasize the role professional identity and agency play in professional development and highlight the importance of recognizing how digitalization of work can threaten or support workers’ professional identities to build a supportive working environment where the workers feel like they are valued and able to develop in a meaningful way.
KW - Professional identity
KW - Professional development
KW - Identity work
KW - Job crafting
KW - Digitalization
KW - The method of empathy-based stories
U2 - 10.1007/s12186-022-09288-6
DO - 10.1007/s12186-022-09288-6
M3 - Article
SN - 1874-7868
VL - 15
SP - 285
EP - 316
JO - Vocations and Learning
JF - Vocations and Learning
IS - 2
ER -