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| Author: | Elsbach, K.D. |
| Title: | Interpreting workplace identities: the role of office décor |
| Journal: | Journal of Organizational Behavior
2004 : FEB, VOL. 25:1, p. 99-128 |
| Index terms: | Offices Employees Work |
| Language: | eng |
| Abstract: | Using qualitative methods, this study examines how employees in corporate office environments interpreted a variety of relatively permanent office décor (e.g. furniture, photos, personal mementos) as indicators of their colleagues' workplace identities (i.e. central and enduring categorizations regarding employees' status and distinctiveness). Similar to the encoding of behavioural cues of identity, findings suggest that interpretation of physical identity markers begins with either 1. a top-down process of social categorization, in which specific rules are applied to encoding a few, focal, and visually salient pieces of office decor as evidence of management prototypes, or 2. a bottom-up process of social categorization, in which a variety of physical artifacts are examined and compared to specific managerial exemplars to develop a complex representation of workplace identity. Findings also suggest that some of the unique attributes of physical identity markers may be associated with the focus of each profiling process. |
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