THE PROCESS OF IDENTITY BUILDING IN ORGANIZATIONS: A RE-READING ON IDENTITY
Published date: 24/02/2017
This teaching case study explores the study of personal, social, work and organizational identities. Identity does not consist only of individuals’ isolated choices, but is also heavily influenced by social agents and institutions. This case study developed in this work is the life story Marko Zikyr. In his early twenties, as a homosexual, Zikyr successfully passed a selection process to work for multinational company in the city of Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais. After a few months in his new environment, Marko started to constitute himself – his personal identity begun to take on traces of emancipation. His behavior, his way of being, and his view of what it means to be a homosexual began to change. However, the company he worked did not accept “gay” employees in top positions. Through this policy, it believed it was “protecting” its business image. So Marko had a dilemma – whether to "look gay” or not, that was the question – which went beyond his image, raising issues of his identity. After going through several situations, in order to keep his job Marko agreed to accept the conditions imposed by his superior, adapting himself to heteronormativity.