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Purpose: The paper aims to explore the process of identity regulation and identity creation on social media for employees in the IT sector of India and how this process is different for men and women. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on the thematic analysis of in-depth interviews of 31 IT professionals. Findings: The authors find that identity regulation and identity creation is a complex process when it is mediated on social media as cues and guidelines for professionals are ambiguous. Enriching Ibarra's model of identity creation, the authors find that this process consists of five steps: (1) motivation to build a desirable self, (2) experimenting with identity boundaries, (3) failed identity experiences, (4) active self-regulation and (5) enacting inauthentic selves. The authors further find that this self-regulation for men is driven by the pressure to conform to the identity of an ideal "corporate man", whereas for women it is driven by the need to conform to societal and cultural expectations. Practical implications: Since identity regulation is a cognitively demanding process that affects both the productivity and well-being of employees, organisations can proactively help employees manage their social media presence through training and mentorship programmes. Originality/value: The paper provides an enriched version of Ibarra's (1999) model on identity creation and regulation and highlights the role of gender in the process. The paper is practically relevant as it provides a window into how employees can feel the need to manifest inauthentic selves which is cognitively demanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transpeople in India forge identities at the confluence of contradictory social forces. Interviews conducted in the state of Kerala suggest that the experience of transphobic stigma results in self‐employed transpeople being abjectified. Social abjectification, in turn, triggers their identity work within liminal social spaces located between the everyday lifeworld and postcolonial legal institutions. Through this work, the participants in this study navigated the contradictions between two identity‐constituting external structures: culture and law. Culture is a source of identity threat, but it also supplies a socially legitimated identity template—the hijra—used in the vital self‐formative work of mirroring and witnessing. Similarly, trans‐supportive social policies and laws provide institutional scaffolding for identities. Yet, despite the agential nature of the participants' identity work, the inherent limitations of the law and the vulnerability of embodiment render them susceptible to the ongoing threat posed by the transphobia emanating from ambient cultural norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to apply the dominance effect theory and postcolonial notions of "otherness" to critically study the enactment of mimicry at IndianBread, an Indian fast-food chain that has adopted work practices typically found in US fast-food multinational enterprises (MNEs). Design/methodology/approach: The authors used an interpretive sensemaking case study approach and collected qualitative data drawing on observations, notes from the company policy manual and in-depth interviews with eight staff at an IndianBread outlet. Data were also collected during informal interactions with staff at three other IndianBread outlets. The analysis focused on the enactment of mimicry and studied the postcolonial dynamics between managers and migrant workers to explain their resistance to the adoption of US work practices. Findings: Work practices of US fast-food MNEs such as the standardization of workers' appearance and basic "Englishization" such as greeting customers in English had been adopted at the IndianBread outlet. However, migrant workers resisted enforcement by contesting the superiority and relevance of these US work practices. The workers' resistance was accommodated by local managers to pacify and retain them. Research limitations/implications: The analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of resistance to the dominant influence of US work practices in emerging market firms. It expands current notions of "otherness" by presenting the perspective of "local" managers and migrant workers. The authors show how worker resistance embedded in their "identity work" involves contesting notions of "inferiority" of local work practices and selves. In the case of managers, accommodating resistance maintains their "legitimacy of dominance". To that end, the study explains how the need to mimic US work practices is enforced, contested and ultimately diluted in competitive local firms in rising India. Practical implications: The organizationally grounded data show how managerial accommodation of workers' resistance to US practices creates a more flexible working environment that dilutes migrant workers' sensitivity to their exploitation at the fast-food outlet. Social implications: The findings identify the link between mimicry and resistance by the "other," the ambivalence of the colonizing agent and the ongoing material exploitation within emerging economies. Originality/value: To that end, the study explains how the need to mimic the US work practices is enforced, contested and ultimately diluted in the context of the competitive local firms in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the extent to which minority Indian male managers engage in identity work in their efforts to gain career ascendancy in the private sector in South Africa. Indian male managers occupying diverse management posts at middle management and senior management levels in various sectors were interviewed. Results indicate that Indian men worked and reworked their managerial and cultural identities to form coherent identities which they were comfortable enacting in corporate South Africa. Race hierarchy in some workplaces placed Indian males at a disadvantage related to promotional opportunities. There is no simple solution to the problem as race hierarchy still dominates corporate South Africa, and Western norms still prevail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the linkages between identity work, the body and embodiment in transnational call centres. Identity work, defined as the masking of national identity to imply proximity to the western client, provides an opportunity for the analyst to examine workplace embodiment in a global context. Qualitative data from an ethnographic study of two global outsourcing firms in India (2010-2012) explicated these processes. Narrative accounts suggest that call centre workers are routinely made aware of the body as a target of discipline, for instance in training; by working on their own bodies (including posture, dress, voice modulation and other forms of body regulation); by working on the bodies of others (through voice-based interactions) and by using embodied images of Americans to contextualize the service provided. In this way, the western client is visualized by the Indian call worker through corporeal imaginaries that concomitantly construct, subvert and resist the West-Rest dichotomy in service relations. Far from being disembodied, this study demonstrates that the body is central to global service work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]