SPLINTERED IDENTITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: THE PREDICAMENT OF BOUNDARY SPANNING MANAGERS

Managers’ boundary spanning role is critical to the effectiveness of groups, teams and organizations. We explore the identity predicament of boundary spanning managers, who must create synergies across multiple identities. In the context of identity threat, formerly synergistic identities may be brought into conflict – a phenomenon we label identity splintering. Our theory and empirical results suggest that identity splintering creates a discrepancy between the identities that boundary spanning managers claim and those they enact.