From cruise director to rabbi: Authoring the agentic self through conventions of narrative necessity
Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
1-1-2019
Abstract
The concept of (self-)identity has become increasingly central to institutional theory’s microfoundations, yet remains relatively underdeveloped. In this chapter, the authors use an autobiographical interview with a gay Protestant minister in the US to explore the role of narrative conventions in the construction of self-identity. The analysis of this chapter offers the basis for a new understanding of the relation between institutions, self-identity, and agency: how we agentically engage institutions depends not only on who we narrate ourselves to be, but also on how we narrate ourselves into being. This suggests that narration as a specific modality of micro-institutional processes has important performative effects.
Publication Title, e.g., Journal
Research in the Sociology of Organizations
Volume
65B
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Lok, Jaco, W. E. Douglas Creed, and Rich Dejordy. "From cruise director to rabbi: Authoring the agentic self through conventions of narrative necessity." Research in the Sociology of Organizations 65B, (2019): 63-83. doi: 10.1108/S0733-558X2019000065B036.