Innovation as a Social Process: Competition, Strategic Resources and Recombinatorial Identity Expression

• In Event: 1184 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 05. Innovation and Technology

Abstract

Modern capitalist nations cultivate the thought of work and identity at a young age. As the child grows into working adult, they have already spent considerable time interweaving their economic survival and individual identity. The demand for good-fitting work is an increasing expectation for modern workers. When this expectation is not achieved, the individual either embraces their mismatched job, or further seeks desired work. Through the multifaceted experience of work mismatch, a sense of both despair and inspiration is present among what I call misfit innovators. These misfits are mismatched workers who resist deprofessionalization by reclaiming collective power vis-a-vis the mobilization of information-sharing workplace groups.

This ethnographic study explores how mismatched workers utilize their work circumstances to maintain identity and seek innovative solutions to both cope with their current situation while advance achievement of their goals. This study reveals how labor market innovation by workers impacts organizations. Group networks, mutual-identity validation, and resource sharing further aid in understanding innovation literature within the sociology of organization.



Author

• Alexandria Vasquez, Brandeis University