“A picture is worth a thousand words”: Using visuals to depict identity work

Introduction

Identity work is a vibrant and expanding field within organizational studies, examining how individuals construct, maintain, and negotiate their identities in response to personal, social, and institutional pressures. However, the rapid growth of this literature has resulted in a dense and fragmented body of work. Numerous identity work strategies have been identified, but they are often inconsistently categorized and theorized. While much research focuses on what these strategies are, there is far less attention to how they unfold, evolve, and interact over time.

Goal

This paper addresses this gap by conducting a comprehensive review of individual-level identity work strategies in organization studies and introducing visual representation as an innovative methodological approach. The review draws on English-language, peer-reviewed articles published between 1987 and 2020, beginning with Snow and Anderson’s foundational work. Searches were conducted across four major academic databases (ABI/INFORM, Scopus, JSTOR, and PsycINFO) using a systematic set of keywords (i.e. identity work, identity construction, identity strategies, identity regulation, and professional identity). Following relevance screening, 85 articles were retained for in-depth analysis and synthesis.

Results

The paper first introduces the concept of identity work and then reviews the main strategies identified across the literature. Each strategy is accompanied by a visual representation that captures how it unfolds and how it may potentially combine with other strategies.

Conclusion

By integrating visual methods into qualitative synthesis, the study makes both a conceptual and methodological contribution. First, it brings analytical coherence to a fragmented field by organizing identity work strategies into a structured and integrative typology. Second, it proposes a new way of engaging with the literature—one that foregrounds process, fluidity, and interaction, allowing researchers to navigate and theorize identity work in more dynamic and insightful ways in organization studies.