Identity as Narrative: Prevalence, Effectiveness, and Consequences of Narrative Identity Work in Macro Work Role Transitions

Self-narratives, stories that make a point about the narrator, help people revise and reconstruct identities during work role transitions. The authors propose a process model in which people draw on narrative repertoires to engage in narrative identity work in role-related interactions. Using feedback from their interactions, they revise both the stories and repertoires. Successful completion of the transition is facilitated by enduring and coherent repertoire changes to express the new role identity.