Week 10: Identity and Rebranding
As far as icebreakers go I especially dislike when I’m asked “Tell me a little bit about yourself”. I feel that the answer to this particular question rarely conveys a true understanding of the person and this question often leads the individual to behave like the “surfer”. The answer that a person will give will vary depending on the situation and who is asking the question.
In the scenario of a job interview the answer that I would probably give would be a collection of adjectives that I believe represent who I am and why I am of value to the organization I seek to become a part of. After reading this chapter I realize why it is difficult to answer this question and even more so when answering this question in the context of a job interview, where the illustration of your best traits is needed so that the organization will see the value of your self as a potential member of their organization. From this moment the organization is already exercising identity regulation in several ways: by defining the “position” directly, by describing the type of work the individual will do, the type of qualifications they will need to have and the responsibilities they will need to acquire in order to complete the job successfully. In this particular situation the interviewee will respond or react with either with the Surfer, Storyteller, Strategist or Soldier identity image as they try to convince the person interviewing them that they are a good fit.
In a class or group setting when individuals are asked to share a little about themselves to the group. The task is meant to provide others a snapshot of the individual’s brand for the benefit of the group. Here members of the organization (for example members of Com 580) will share traits about themselves that they find meaningful or accurately representing who they are. To the group, this snapshot will help people and the professor remember who those individuals are (oh this person likes dogs, that other person is engaged) and might even provide a way for people to bond as they might identity themselves as members of other organizations that other individuals might belong to given them some sort of validity.
For me answering this question is particularly difficult as I rarely know what to share and what will be of value for others to listen to. When posed with this question I guess I react with a mixture of the “Struggler” and the “Surfer” as I try to give myself a meaningful identity. In a classroom setting I would probably say my name, where I’m from, what year in school I am in, and share something that interests me like (I enjoy writing poetry, reading, and I love anything to do with zombies). For this assignment I went back to my introduction to the course and this is what I responded:
My name is Andrea and I am a first year graduate student. I graduated from Illinois Tech last May with a Bachelor in Technical Communication with a specialization in web design. I am very excited to participate in this course.
Like Steve and Nicole, I am also recently engaged.
In this response, I gave my fellow classmates an idea of who I am and what point of my life am in. As a graduate student I will fall into a particular age range, as a communications major I might have strong written and verbal skills, as a person who is engaged I might belong to a organization that believes in the marital union of two individuals as opposed to someone who believes or is committed to their partner in a long term relationship.
In a job interview I would probably respond with where I studied, my most recent positions and identify traits about myself that I find resonate with the values of the organization or might even address traits that the organization have that I am interesting in developing. In this setting, I would portray my brand to be flexible with some experience and interested in a particular aspect of their own brand.
When it comes to identity shifts I can’t think of a more clear example than Miss Congeniality . Where the main character Gracie Hart goes undercover the Miss United States pageant in order to stop a potential bombing. Gracie belongs to an organization (the FBI) where the identity of it’s members is strictly regulated especially for a woman as she must effective interact professionally and personally with her colleagues. Gracie exhibits a personality of an individual who is very unkempt, unpolished, without manners and a bit rough around the edges.
To her colleagues she is not really viewed as a woman (from what they consider to be womanly) because of her behavior and the way she presents herself. Being a member of an organization like the FBI probably reinforced certain traits that Gracie either felt she had to have in order to be part of this organization and be taken seriously.
Although the brand she is asked to portray as part of her assignment is one completely the opposite of what she defines as her own personal brand a lot of her assumptions of the women in the pageant are stereotypes of what she believes a feminine woman to be like (airheads). Regardless of her own stereotypes she plays the role was given and in the end retains some characteristics of the organization she infiltrated (Miss United States pageant) for her own personal brand. Through the interactions of her undercover character she discovered traits of value that she adopted to her own personal brand (as a member of the FBI) and a woman. She essentially went from a temporary brand shift to an evolution of her personal brand after being a member of the Miss United States pageant.
