A theoretical model of career subidentity development in organizational settings

Abstract

Abstract This paper first presents a framework of psychological and sociological research on careers. It then describes a model for describing a phenomenon largely unexplored in the psychological career literature—identity changes during the course of a person's occupational career experiences. In this model the individual's total identity is viewed as a number of subidentities, with each subidentity representing the person's image of himself in a particular social role (Miller 1963). The model examines the development of the career subidentity, the person's conception of himself in his career role. Growth in the career subidentity and career commitment is seen as a series of cycles of challenging goal setting, independent effort, success, subidentity growth, and increased career self-esteem and commitment, leading, in turn, to further goal setting.