Forgone identities: a study on the long tenure of women leaders in companies with no upward mobility prospects

Abstract

This study analyzes the forgoing of leader identity by women who exercise leadership informally, addressing factors that favor their retention in a company where there are no prospects for upward mobility, and the psychological impacts triggered by persistent institutional denial of their identities. The research draws on in-depth interviews with professionals who experienced this in the technology sector. The analysis reveals that acceptance of the contextual constraints was facilitated by the presence of surrogates for the leader identity and by the use of job crafting, the latter having ambivalent emotional consequences. The repeated refusals to formally grant the leader identity to them gave rise to identity threats signaled by defense mechanisms. These threats undermined the individual internalization of this identity, contributing to the long tenure of these professionals in the organization.

Keywords:
Women and leadership; Forgone professional identities; Identity threats; Job crafting; Technology sector

Resumo

Esta pesquisa analisa o abandono da identidade de líder (forgone professional identity) por mulheres que exercem a liderança na prática, abordando fatores que favorecem sua permanência em uma empresa na qual não têm perspectivas de ascensão hierárquica e os impactos psicológicos desencadeados pela negação institucional reiterada de suas identidades. O estudo se baseia em entrevistas em profundidade conduzidas com profissionais que vivenciaram essa experiência no setor tecnológico. A análise revela que a acomodação ao contexto é favorecida pela presença de substitutos da identidade de líder e pelo uso de job crafting, tendo o último consequências emocionais ambivalentes. As reiteradas recusas de concessão institucional da identidade de líder suscitam ameaças identitárias sinalizadas por mecanismos de defesa. Essas ameaças abalam a internalização individual dessa identidade, contribuindo para a retenção das profissionais na organização.

Palavras-chave:
Mulheres e liderança; Identidades profissionais abandonadas; Ameaças identitárias; Job crafting; Setor tecnológico

Resumen

Esta investigación analiza el abandono de la identidad líder (forgone professional identity) por parte de las mujeres que ejercen el liderazgo en la práctica, abordando los factores que favorecen su permanencia en una empresa en la que no tienen perspectivas de ascenso jerárquico y los impactos psicológicos desencadenados por la reiterada negación institucional de sus identidades. El estudio se basa en entrevistas en profundidad realizadas a profesionales que han vivido esta experiencia en el sector tecnológico. El análisis revela que la adaptación al contexto se ve favorecida por la presencia de sustitutos de la identidad de líder y por el uso del job crafting, este último con consecuencias emocionales ambivalentes. Las reiteradas negativas a otorgar institucionalmente la identidad de líder dan lugar a amenazas identitarias señalizadas por los mecanismos de defensa. Estas amenazas socavan la interiorización individual de esta identidad, contribuyendo a la retención de las profesionales en la organización.

Palabras clave:
Mujeres y liderazgo; Identidades profesionales abandonadas; Amenazas de Identidad; Job crafting; Sector tecnológico

INTRODUCTION

Women still face greater challenges than men in advancing to leadership positions (Eagly & Carli, 2007; Shen & Joseph, 2021). Statistics reflect this situation: only 10.4% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are women (Hinchliffe, 2023). In STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) sectors, the unequal distribution of leadership positions is even worse (World Economic Forum, 2022), and they move into these roles slower (e.g. Corbett & Hill, 2015; Gruber et al., 2021). In these areas, an analysis of recent statistics indicates that despite progress in women’s entry and prominence, they remain underrepresented (Bello & Estebanez, 2022), particularly in Technology and Engineering (Eagly, 2021).

This is a significant issue, as STEM sectors are central to fostering innovation and developing national infrastructure (Schmader, 2023). A greater participation of women in these fields would promote social justice by offering them opportunities to access areas with lower unemployment rates, that encompass the “jobs of the future” (Bello & Estebanez, 2021), and with higher levels of pay. In addition, it would lead to increased effectiveness and help addressing the shortage of qualified professionals in these segments (Schmader, 2023). However, when working in STEM companies, women are often faced with a lack of recognition and opportunities for hierarchical advancement, low or unfair remuneration, and little use of their qualifications — factors that are among the main reasons for the high rates of abandonment of the engineering profession within this group (Fouad et al., 2017).

Considering the adversities imposed on them in these sectors, female leaders frequently do not obtain institutional recognition of this identity through hierarchical promotion, particularly at the intermediate and upper echelons (Eagly & Karli, 2007), and this can occur even when they perform the respective activities and responsibilities associated with these positions. Although formal recognition is not necessary for exercising influence, formal grating of leadership positions and equal career growth opportunities are relevant to women in the workforce (Babic & Hances, 2021). This study analyzes the forgoing of leader identity by women who exercise leadership informally, addressing factors that favor their retention in a company where there are no prospects for upward mobility, and the psychological impacts triggered by persistent institutional denial of their identities. To achieve this objective, we have adopted a qualitative approach based on in-depth interviews.

Most studies on female leadership explore differences in leadership style and the effectiveness of women in leadership roles (Simon & Hoyt, 2022; Cavazotte & Oliveira, 2018), the roots of hierarchical inequality between men and women (Eagly & Heilman, 2016; Shen & Joseph, 2021) and, more recently, how women have overcome these obstacles (e.g. Hryniewicz & Vianna; 2018; Figueredo & Cavazotte, 2023). Studies that analyze the impact of barriers to female leadership on women themselves and their well-being are scant (Hackett et al., 2019).

This study presents contributions to the theoretical field of gender, leadership, and identity, as well as to knowledge on the complex mechanisms that sustain unequal working conditions in STEM sectors. First, this study enhances our understanding of women’s reactions in the face of continual denial of their leader identities, from a psychological and professional point of view, an aspect of the leadership identity theory of DeRue & Ashford (2010) not yet examined in depth. It also highlights the conditions that induce women to stay in organizations where they cannot have this identity formally acknowledged, or in other words, their forgoing of such identity (Obodaru, 2017). Studies regarding forgone professional identities are of vital importance, since they can affect how individuals experience their current work and have considerable harmful effects, with consequences for their behavior and well-being (Burgess et al., 2022). The results of our study have special practical relevance for women and other marginalized groups, which suffer greater professional constraints and are frequently compelled to conform to these conditions of inequality, accepting the restrictions they impose on their lives.

THEORETICAL FOUNDATION

Hierarchical advancement of women in STEM sectors

Various studies have demonstrated that men and women do not compete for executive roles under equal conditions (e.g. Shen & Joseph, 2021; Schock et al., 2019). Multiple obstacles hinder women’s hierarchical advancement in organizations, a route represented by a labyrinth (Eagly & Carli, 2007). An underlying cause for this condition is gender roles, that is, stereotypes and normative expectations based on individuals’ sex (Eagly, 1987). They direct the agentic attributes associated with the prototypes of leader to men and generate an incongruence between these prototypes and the attributes directed to women (Eagly & Karau, 2002; Bourdieu, 2020).

Regarding STEM sectors, surveys on the low participation of women are alarming. For example, in the United States, in 2022, women held only 21.5% of software developer positions and 15.7% of hardware engineer positions (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). In Brazil, they represent only 13.3% of Computer Science and Information and Communication Technologies students and 21.6% of engineering and related students, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, 2021). In the United States, many women in STEM sectors within male-dominated environments report that they have suffered discrimination, and for 48% of them, gender has hindered their success at work (Funck & Park, 2018). In undergraduate engineering programs, they live with this reality as students, with the division of tasks and expectations defined according to gender during classes and internships (Silbey, 2016).When they reach a leadership position in STEM firms, they perceive challenges such as the lack of power to exercise authority, the need to be extremely vigilant in terms of their relationships with others, and the influence of gender stereotypes (Amon, 2017).

Overall, studies on female leadership point to small advantages associated with women in the way they lead, such as the adoption of participative styles and transformational leadership, behaviors contemporaneously related to effective leadership (Simon & Hoyt, 2022). However, the challenges faced by women in the exercise of leadership in predominantly male contexts, such as STEM sectors, are also known (Eagly & Carli, 2007; Eagly et al., 1995; Meister et al., 2017), as well as the penalties suffered by them when they are successful in activities considered masculine (Heilman et al., 2004). A recent study, for example, indicates that women expect to have less power when they apply to serve on committees that are mostly male compared to those balanced in terms of gender (Goodwin et al., 2020). Thus, the scenario characterized by systemic biases that female leaders encounter in STEM organizations may lead many of them to give up seeking leadership positions and forgo this professional identity.

Identities at work and leadership identity

Identities are guided by meanings (Karreman & Alvesson, 2001) and refer to how individuals define themselves (Ashforth & Schinoff, 2016). They are developed based on the self (Ashmore & Jussim, 1997). While the self belongs to the core of the individual and is stable, identities are responses to social contexts on a higher level of consciousness and malleability. Identities are subjected to continuous identity work processes, which seek to develop, preserve, adjust and correct them, to ensure congruence with desired selves (Sveningsson & Alvesson, 2003). In addition, alternative selves refer to the alternative present, and answer who the individual would be if the past had somehow occurred in a different way. When they are seen as better than the current self, dissatisfaction with work and with life itself increases, which leads to negative emotions (Obodaru, 2012). Alternative selves may correspond to forgone professional identities, that is, identities abandoned either by choice or due to constraints, and which do not align with the individual’s formal occupation (Obodaru, 2017).

The predominant view in the field proposes that identity constructions would lead to coherence, and consequently forgone identities would have no influence on the individual in the present. However, this concept has been challenged by recent studies. Burgess et al. (2022) argue that some people constantly think and reflect about the career path that they left behind, even several years later, and therefore manifest forgone identity dwelling. This condition can stimulate longing for this role, an ambivalent emotional state, and may result in psychological distancing from work and less demonstration of collaborative behaviors. In the same vein, studies have indicated that the forgoing of identity caused by external circumstances often profoundly impacts individuals (Felix & Favretto, 2024) and mobilizes responses that aim to mitigate their discomfort (Felix & Cavazotte, 2019). In some cases, individuals’ belief that they determine their own lives may give rise to job crafting—when people promote changes in activities and social relationships at work—altering their understanding of what their job is and who they are at work to gain greater satisfaction (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001).

According to DeRue and Ashford (2010), the leader identity in organizations is collectively recognized and endorsed by means of social interactions. In this process, an individual in a relationship may claim the role of leader or follower through his or her behavior, and the other party may grant that role by engaging in the opposite behavior. Thus, from this point of view, to become a leader in a given context, it is necessary that granting, or relational recognition, occurs; occupying a leadership position may favor the granting of leadership, but it is not a requirement (nor a sufficient condition) for it. In STEM sectors, women leaders may not have full or institutional recognition of this identity via access to higher hierarchical positions. Hence, they may be repeatedly denied the granting of this identity—a context conducive to its forgoing. This study seeks to better understand this process and its consequences.

Sensitizing concepts: identity threats and defense mechanisms

People strive to build an identity that meets four basic needs: self-esteem, or self-worth; self-efficacy, or the belief that they are capable of overcoming challenges; continuity, or coherence between one’s past, present, and expected identity in the future; and the positive distinction, or positive perception of oneself (Breakwell & Jaspal, 2021; Breakwell, 2020). Failure to meet these needs can provoke an identity threat, to which people respond for the purpose of restoring satisfactory levels of these principles. In investigating forgone professional identities in the case of women in the technology sector, notions of identity threats and identity defense mechanisms are adopted as sensitizing concepts. Sensitizing concepts are broad and abstract categories, with limited empirical content, which sensitize the researchers to identify phenomena that are relevant from a theoretical point of view in their field (Kelle, 2007).

Identity threats involve a situation perceived by an individual as capable of being pernicious to the values and meanings that compose his or her identity or to its exercise (Petriglieri, 2011). One of the possible reactions to these threats is defense mechanisms. Largely unconscious, they attenuate anxiety by interfering with the interpretation of reality (Brody & Costa, 2020) and can take many forms. According to Petriglieri (2011), derogation is a strategy in which responsibility is attributed to factors beyond the individual’s reach; an example is to increase critical judgment of those who produce it (Petriglieri, 2011; Kira & Klehe, 2016). Rationalization, meanwhile, is a mechanism that influences the individual’s interpretation of the reasons for their own conduct so as to see themselves as coherent and rational (Yong et al., 2021).

From the perspective of preserving or recovering self-esteem, self-regulatory behaviors reactive to threats may be employed. In this sense, compensation strategies are aimed at modifying the understanding of the conjunctures experienced by reducing the validity of the threat or reinforcing positive factors about oneself; while resistance strategies hide the threat (vanDellen et al., 2011). Also, in the face of negative emotions or conditions that are harmful to the aspirated and significant conceptions of self aroused by threats, psychological immunity involves narratives that protect self-images related to each identity theme, that is, to each goal that individuals pursue. In this way, its consequences are neutralized or mitigated with the aim of preserving the maintenance of a positive identity. It is responsible for maintaining a state of psychological homeostasis that regulates the emotions associated with identity threats—both reactively and preventively (Sedikides, 2021, 2012).

METHOD

This study analyzes the forgoing of leader identity by women who exercise leadership informally, addressing factors that favor their retention in a company where there are no prospects for upward mobility, and the psychological impacts triggered by persistent institutional denial of their identities. Considering this, participants who worked in the same STEM sector company were sought, so that the professionals were immersed in the same culture and in the same organizational environment—conditions conducive to the experience of similar gender dynamics over time. In this way, the study was conducted in a Brazilian private engineering company, in the technological sector, referred to in this article as ACME. The organization offers telecommunication products and services to the corporate market and to the public sector. ACME was chosen among STEM organizations because of the access obtained to the company in a previous study, which found a very unfavorable situation for the hierarchical progression of women.

The study focused on the experiences of "female professionals who were notable leaders at ACME. They performed functions corresponding to positions hierarchically superior to those they formally held, and had an intense desire to have their leadership officially recognized. Even in the face of the improbability of fulfilling this desire, they remained for long periods in the company. All of them are currently former employees of ACME.

Initially, a search was conducted for professionals who presented curricula compatible with the central requirements (women with more than 10 years of experience in ACME who had performed leadership activities informally). Professionals in line and staff positions were considered. Potential participants were searched through data from the above-mentioned previous study, a social media platform focused on business and jobs, and a participant’s referral. The criteria of accessibility and the manifestation of an intense desire (not met) to rise on the corporate ladder were also considered as requirements. Four professionals were identified who matched the specificity of the defined profile. Their accounts were the focal object of analysis.

Hence, the intentional selection technique was employed, in which the selection of the participants occurs deliberately as a function of their particular characteristics, in accordance with who can respond to the research question—and is available to do so (Etikan et al., 2016; Maxwell, 2012). This technique does not require the definition of the number of participants (Bernard, 2002). The choice focuses on the selection of cases which can offer in-depth information about the subject (Patton, 2002). The subtype of intentional sampling applied was homogeneity (Etikan et al., 2016). The participants shared similar experiences within the same company.

During the period that the interviewees worked at ACME, the company expanded its market nationally and internationally and became a large organization. Currently, it is an important provider for the Brazilian public sector and has a portfolio composed of thousands of corporate clients, although it has returned to medium size. The participants reported that throughout the company’s history, no woman has reached positions at the top of the organization, and only four have held management positions. It is, therefore, a organization with low female representation at the middle and upper hierarchical levels.

The study used a qualitative approach and was conducted through in-depth interviews. The interview script sought to analyze various aspects of the respondents’ trajectory at ACME, especially factors of hierarchical advancement and stagnation, in addition to the experience of forgoing professional identity of leader, the focal theme of this article. The profiles of the participating professionals are presented below (Chart 1).

Chart 1
Participants’ Profile

Prior to the interviews, a free and informed consent form was sent to the participants by e-mail, that contained the following information: the exclusively academic purpose of the study, the objective of the research, the audio recording of the interviews with anonymity and privacy of the data collected, the non-granting of financial benefits for participation, the possibility of clarifying doubts as well as withdrawal without punishment from the research and the means of contact to do so. After accepting these conditions, the participants were interviewed individually by video-called audio calls that were later transcribed. The themes extracted from the collected narratives refer to the objective of the research and are the following: 1) factors that favored their long tenure in the company; and 2) the psychological impacts triggered by the reiterated institutional denial of their identities. As examples of questions asked in relation to topic 1, the following are cited: a) What led you to stay in the company for so long?; and referring to topic 2: b) Have you stopped thinking about climbing the hierarchy in the face of the difficulties of advancement encountered?

In addition to content analysis, the analytical connection strategy was applied, pursuing to understand the data from the interviews in context and observe relationships capable of connecting statements and events mentioned by the participants into a cohesive whole (Maxwell, 2012). Furthermore, sensitizing concepts (Kelle, 2007) were employed for a better comprehension of the underlying social processes that support the analysis.

ANALYSIS

This section presents the results of the data analysis. In the first part, Progress and stagnation in leadership roles, the trajectories of the interviewees in the ACME company are described, in particular their initial hierarchical advancement and the repeated refusals to institutionally grant the leader identity to them (DeRue & Ashford, 2010), from a certain point on. In the second, Factors contributing to retention, aspects of their journeys that promoted a long length of service in the company are highlighted: Surrogates for the leader identity and Job crafting strategies. The last part, Impacts of the institutional denial of leader identity, analyzes defense mechanisms indicative of the identity threats experienced by the interviewees.

Progress and stagnation in leadership roles

The interviewees were young when they joined the company: for Lise, it was her first job; the others were interns, which was the usual entry route into ACME. All of them have achieved recognition as leaders at certain points in their trajectories.

Elinor, still as an intern, proposed innovative measures that were implemented in the company, to the point of developing a new sector, where she began working as a supervisor. Later, she became an advisor to the commercial director and started to take on tasks connected to directing this company’s area informally. Katherine, after presenting management plans that improved the efficiency of processes, rose twice to intermediate positions until she became product manager, although without obtaining salary recognition for any of these roles. In addition, she informally assumed the activities of product group manager. Rosalind achieved the supervision of an operational department and, through her proactive behavior, took on various advisory roles in management, but informally. Lise, after extensive experience at ACME, informally assumed the position of technical team leader.

Elinor, Katherine, and Rosalind clearly relate situations and aspects of an organizational culture and a promotion policy unfavorable to the hierarchical advancement of women. Gradually, they realized that it would be unlikely to obtain the rise to the leadership positions they exercised informally, despite their desire for it. Rosalind declares: “I saw that I had the profile [to lead] [...] many people were uncomfortable with having a woman as a manager [...] the industrial director was more sexist.” Lise found that she would not be able to progress in her leadership role, after several unsuccessful attempts to negotiate formal recognition as a technical manager and the subsequent moral harassment she began to suffer.

I always identified [with the role of a leader] [...] I wanted [to climb the ladder]. But I was blocked many times! They cut me off and didn’t give room for a woman to rise to the director level! [...] due to the sexist side of the company [...] they would not put me on the executive board! (Elinor).

It was always natural for me to lead... so I wanted to go into management [...] I wanted my arms to be free to do what needed to be done, to achieve goals [...]. When I went to management [...] people had known me for a long time, but, of course, there was always that thing about this manager [her boss] who often asked things directly from [her] subordinates [...] there was no room [to rise further]. In many cases, I was not heard, including by one of the owners of the company. [Do you think that if you were not a woman you would have received higher salaries and had more opportunities?] Absolutely. Absolutely. I have no doubt (Katherine).

I was more interested in being a technical leader [...] it was a very natural thing [to become a leader] [...]. They [the administration] said that I did not have the capacity to be a technical leader when, in fact, I was [...]. I suffered a lot in my last years there [...]. They began to demand this freshness which comes with youth, which comes from new knowledge in the area of programming, and I was contributing more to the product and commercial part. So, I suffered very severe moral harassment (Lise).

The reports of these professionals reiterate their desire to lead and their perception of organizational barriers to the formal recognition of this identity. Even in the face of this situation, Katherine, Elinor, Lise and Rosalind remained at ACME for 13, 15, 23 and 32 years, respectively. Their growing conformity to this condition and remaining at the firm for so many years, despite the absence of the formal granting of the leadership identity and the resulting stagnation in their careers, constitutes the forgoing of their professional identities due to restrictions, as described by Obodaru (2017). According to the author, when forgone identities are linked to unfulfilled personal values, people look for ways to experience them and keep them in their self-concept.

Factors contributing to retention

We have sought to analyze the factors that contribute to professionals remaining at ACME despite not receiving formal recognition of their leader identity from the firm, seeking to better understand how the participants lived through this experience. Based on reports from the participants, two factors emerged as being relevant: surrogates for the leader identity and the job crafting strategies.

Surrogates for the leader identity

A condition that favored the long tenure of the interviewees in the ACME and the continuity in an adverse conjuncture refers to aspects of their formal positions that acted as surrogates for the leader identity, in other words, present functions in which they were able to perform aspects associated with that identity. For Katherine, Lise and Rosalind, working in technical areas of a technology company—i.e., in an environment of constant innovation—provided a challenging job, with autonomy and learning—attributes linked to hierarchical high command positions. To a certain extent, they were able to embody these attributes through activities they formally performed, as described below: “The company was always innovating up to a certain point in time; It was always launching new products. Then, new technologies came in, so you were always... there was always an apprenticeship, and that was a reason to stay too” (Rosalind).

It was 23 years of constructing products [...] I helped [to develop] practically all the equipment of modern ACME [...] so that motivated me to always be there [...] and there was a growing [...] I was working with several types of software, several different software languages [...] I participated in web projects, and we started working with new languages (Lise).

Furthermore, according to Lise’s report, having several experiences in the business area and in different technical roles also contributed to her forgoing of leader identity, that is, not to seeking formal advancement in another company.

Therefore, it was possible to verify, through the accounts, that the forgoing of the leader’s identity was influenced by the possibility of performing relevant factors of it (e.g., learning; intellectual challenge, financial return). This observation somewhat corroborates the ideas of Obodaru (2017): people (in this case, professional women) can abandon identities (in this case, of leader) when these identities are linked to values that can be satisfied in another way and may even lead to their discarding.

Hence, when Katherine and Rosalind found that the functions in which they worked were no longer exciting and conducive to their development, their frustration intensified. This ultimately become one of the decisive factors in driving the former to leave the company (after 13 years there):

When I felt that I was stagnant [...] a new product even came along [...] it was what extended my stay there a little. And as soon as I structured the product, that it was already working, in my understanding, I had reached the limit where I could evolve in the company [...]. I wanted to expand to other areas of knowledge and I couldn’t; I was restricted to a specific group (Katherine).

The professionals could not ignore elements of their identity that they could no longer fulfill and the associated negative emotions, as Rosalind mentions: “It was a little frustrating at times, because you work for a while, you reach a level of growth and then if you don’t have new challenges you enter a comfort zone, that is not cool”.

Therefore, it was observed that surrogates for the leader identity favored the forgoing of this identity to the extent that the professionals were able to perform certain dimensions of it in their functions. However, due to the infeasibility of fully experiencing these aspects, they sought alternative ways to remain connected to their forgone identity (cf. Obodaru, 2017).

Job crafting strategies

Another influential factor for the interviewees to remain in the company was the use of job crafting strategies (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). Elinor carried out many management tasks beyond the scope of her position as an advisor. In addition, established a direct and constant relationship with the members of the top hierarchical, especially with the vice president of her area, which was also outside her formal duties. This situation gave her the power to influence the company’s major management decisions. Thus, aspects related to power and prestige that she associated with the forgone identity were partially met:

I finished my master’s degree in management and my director only had an undergraduate degree in engineering and he had a position as director of commercial management and never completed a graduate specialization [...] I sent everything to him [...] I carried out a lot of work for the director, and he signed off on it as though it had been his work [...] I felt important within the company’s hierarchy because I started as an intern and most of my contacts were at the management and board level and, many times, [she participated in] meetings even with the owners of the company, the presidents and vice president. I always felt important [...] I had status within the corporation, but I didn’t have a high position (Elinor).

For Lise, leadership was associated with the opportunity to contribute to the development of others. Through the job crafting strategy, she also performed the forgone identity, prioritizing activities and interactions that expressed this aspect:

I performed technical leadership without a formalization of this leadership. [...] I have a vision of leadership, which is this technical leadership, which is you being with the person, you share, you recognize [...] From this point of view, I think I was a good leader , so much so that I have recognition and it is not false from the people who were led by me; several have grown a lot. Today, various of them have executive positions in other companies and worked for me as interns (Lise).

Rosalind performed advisory activities for the management, and even management activities through job crafting:

I participated in this [management] planning [...] I ended up being kind of an indirect management advisor [...] [She was responsible for] deciding what we would buy with the manager, initiating the purchase [...]. I coordinated this part of sending it to the supplier, I took care of deadlines [...] my manager and I were fighting a lot to change this culture of the product life cycle [...] we were running the project for this purpose [...] [Were you in charge?] It was me and my manager [...] there was an effort to promote the involvement of other areas [...]. [Was it predominantly your initiative?] Yes, it was. (Rosalind).

As Obodaru (2017) emphasizes, when aspects associated with an identity are not addressed by a formally assumed position, job crafting can make their real performance viable. According to the author, this strategy can also cause the person to retain a forgone identity. By engaging in this strategy, the professionals under study partially met the needs related to the leader identity, but at the same time, they seem to have strengthened this identity even more. In this way, the informal exercise of leadership may have accentuated what Burgess et al. (2022) call fixation on the forgone identity and the longing for it. Lise and Rosalind went so far as to transform their professional identities (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001) and explicitly define themselves according to the desired identity (excerpts highlighted in the previous statements).

In addition, although they continually used this strategy, the lack of formal granting of the leader identity triggered negative emotions such as frustration and revolt. Lise states: “It shocked me. A lot!”. This reaction was even more noticeable in Elinor, since the recognition for the performance of the executive leadership activities she undertook was attributed to the formal occupant of the position, which intensified her suffering. Therefore, the use of job crafting seemed to provoke ambivalent reactions in some of them.

I carried out the tasks he was meant to do, so he promoted himself based on knowledge that wasn’t his [...] It [the company] appropriates your knowledge, which made me frustrated [...]. What they did to me was buy my competence and sign as if it were theirs [...] There comes a time when you realize that you work hard and are never recognized [...]. I really got tired of this! (Elinor).

The interviewed professionals did not discard their identity as leaders, even without living it fully, that is, without having the formal leadership granted to them by ACME. Moreover, as detailed below, the surrogates for the leader identity and the use of job crafting were insufficient for them to achieve well-being and professional fulfillment. Furthermore, informally modifying their activities and interactions to experience dimensions not served by the position (job crafting), without achieving formal recognition, seems to have made the experience of forgoing identity more harmful for these professionals.

Impacts of the Institutional Denial of Leader Identity: identity threats and defense mechanisms

The professionals’ frustration emerges within their narratives and the emotional tone adopted when describing their trajectories. The barriers to the formal granting of the leader identity constitute an identity threat to these professionals, because such identity is relevant to them, the barriers harm their careers, make it impossible to fulfill the needs of the self, and tarnish the claimed identity (cf. Petriglieri, 2011). The experience of social devaluation inherent to the refusal to formally grant the leader identity is impactful for the professionals’ self-esteem, given that it contrasts the real value conferred by others and that desired by the self (vanDellen et al., 2011).

When reporting their continued tenure in the company despite the non-formal granting of the leader identity, the professionals manifest several identity defense mechanisms that permeate their accounts and evidence the attack on their self-concept produced in these experiences.

It was observed the use of derogation (Petriglieri, 2011; Kira & Klehe, 2016) or, from the perspective of self-esteem protection, compensation (vanDellen et al., 2011) in Elinor’s narrative. She constantly and incisively censures the company’s culture and the members at the top, which she understands to represent an insurmountable impediment to achieving the desired identity, in a reaction based on delegitimizing the origin of the threat.

It’s a highly sexist company [...] with sexist owners, and it’s not going to happen, it wouldn’t happen anymore [a hierarchical advancement]. [...] It was totally corporatist in the sense that only those who the owners want will reach high-ranking positions. It was not based on competence; it was based on trust. (Elinor).

Regardless of how pertinent her criticisms of the company are, in Elinor’s perception the possibility of realizing this identity is reduced to the granting by the members at the top of ACME, and thus excludes the options she could have outside the company. Since this mechanism does not alter the threatened identity nor the conceptions of the source of the threat, it requires constant effort so that there is no damage to the identity, which leads to negative consequences for the individual (Petriglieri, 2011).

Another example of compensation observed in Elinor’s narrative is the search for information that counterbalances the negative impact of the threat on her self-concept:

[It was] a really sexist environment, it wasn’t because I didn’t have competence [the reason she didn’t rise]. [...] If I didn’t have a leadership spirit, I wouldn’t be able to join as an intern, form an area within the company with four subordinates, and deal only with directors, managers and the presidency.

In a demonstration of protection for threatened self-esteem, Katherine mentions that it took her a while to notice the discrimination in the company:

[When she resigned] I think I also had a little more vision that there were these difficulties, of having sexism and having these barriers because of gender. I think when I started working there I kind of didn’t believe that this existed, so every time something happened, I was like: “No. This is just in my head.” I didn’t give it much thought.

Katherine’s words reveals the mechanism of resistance, aimed at changing the context in the sense of not identifying the threat, which may or may not be conscious (vanDellen et al., 2011). In certain situations, as long as they do not involve intense and perceptible emotional shocks, people unconsciously obliterate the existence of threats directed at self-images that they value, in order to preserve them (Sedikides, 2021). The non-recognition of the threats prevented Katherine from understanding the situation she was in, and consequently from being able to make decisions about it.

Rationalization occurs when an individual creates a coherent and logical explanation, therefore, that he or she considers acceptable, about his or her motivations to perform a behavior, while hiding the real and distressing reasons associated with it (Perry, 1990; Knoll, Starrs & Perry, 2016; Yong et al., 2021). Its demonstration is present in the accounts of Lise and Elinor:

[in the years when she suffered moral harassment] what kept me there was the financial aspect [...]. The city’s industry [...] is hiring engineers as programmers, as analysts in order not to pay the minimum wages [...]. I was depressed [...] I didn’t recognize it at the time [...] I was very negative about my professional life, so I didn’t even have the courage to leave! That’s why I think I waited until [she could] say: “I was laid off.” (Lise).

My salary kept increasing, so I stayed. Then after a while, you either left to work in a business where you will earn that amount or more... and I earned a salary that for the city’s standard was high. I wasn’t going to leave to join a company that paid what I earned [...] so, you stay, stay, but if you ask me “Elinor, were you motivated?”, I don’t know if I was motivated [...] I wasn’t afraid of losing my job! [because] I come from a good family, I have a well-structured husband, so much so that the day I was fired [...] he [said] “Oh, that’s good, now you’ll have more time for me!”, and said: “Do you want to go to your last day in a BMW to work?” [...] Since I wasn’t afraid of losing my job... I was very honest, when someone was rude to me, I fought fire with fire [...] I think that if I had been bolder in the job market and left, faced the job market, I think I would be happier, more professionally fulfilled (Elinor).

When asked directly about it, Lise and Elinor indicate financial reasons as the cause for their staying. However, after being fired from the company, Lise realizes that, in fact, she lacked the “courage” to leave ACME. It can be inferred from her report that the experience of identity threat led to resignation and forgoing of the leader identity, in addition to mobilizing the defense mechanism of rationalization. In the previous excerpt, Elinor, likewise, says that she did not leave the company because of her remuneration, but at other times in the interview she declares that she was not afraid to risk losing her job precisely for financial reasons, which seems contradictory. In her narrative, she ponders that she did not have the “boldness” to “face the job market”.

Although financial criteria often mobilize retention in a job, it is observed that the participants elaborate a logical justification to ensure their self-coherence despite the attitudes of staying, while covering up the insecurity that emerges from the situation. In another example, Katherine points to a banal but rational reason for remaining: “When I was married, my husband also worked there. For us, it was convenient that both of us worked at the same place.”

Elinor also explains her stay due to her role as a mother and demonstrates an attitude of avoidance, complacency, and resignation at the time.

I walk in front of the company, and I wonder... my God, how did I stay there for 15 years? [...] I think it’s my fault; I should have left earlier! [...] But, anyway, we... The day goes by, the month goes by, the year goes by, and then you start to have a routine, and you think it’s good [...]. I had a routine of having lunch at home every day [...] I took [her son] to school, and at 5:30 I knew that I would leave and pick him up. For me it was comfortable [...] but I don’t think I would stay if I didn’t have him. I couldn’t stand it because I’m a plainspoken person [...] but with a young child [she used to think]: “Oh, should I leave, should I stay? Oh, I will wait a little longer, I will wait...” (Elinor).

Women may justify not confronting the natural anxiety that arises in the face of challenges by attributing their behaviors to motherhood, because they have assimilated the social notion that the predominance of this sphere in their lives is acceptable for them (Dowling, 2022). In this manner, social gender roles can influence the renouncement of professional identity. Narratives about different identity themes (e.g. motherhood | leadership), used for psychological defense, are usually interconnected. In the theme of mother identity, the “dedicated” self-image is supported by the narrative of being present in the child’s routine, while being used to justify the forgoing of the leader’s identity, and thus preserves self-images commonly related to this theme, of a “fearless”, “self-confident” and “agentic” person (Sedikides, 2021). More important than being misaligned with the role of leader, the fear, insecurity and resignation that emerge in the reports give signs that the identity threat experienced may have affected the self-esteem and self-efficacy of the professionals.

The defense mechanisms they adopted suggest that the identity threat produced by the experience contributed to their paralysis in relation to the problem, and so they remained in the ACME, but in a state of relative apathy towards work. Distance from work is an effect related to longing for forgone identity (Burgess et al., 2022). This indifference eases the suffering, and favored the continuity of the situation, even despite the adverse conditions in which they found themselves.

It is worth mentioning that the lack of considerable experience in other companies is a relevant factor to be considered—all participants had their first job at ACME. For them, “the world was ACME” (Katherine). Their professional identity was built, until then, in this company. Previous experiences could assuage the fear of leaving or have promoted the robustness of their identity as a leader. Furthermore, it is possible that, as the ACME journey lengthened, the threat of identity also intensified, contributing to their resignation, in a cycle that prevented them from recognizing the damage inherent to their continuity in this situation.

When I met my current husband, he lived in São Paulo, he had a different vision of the company, of the world. It also helped me a lot to see that the world was not just ACME. It was my first job, so I dedicated a lot of time to the company... I wanted things to work out. [...] [when] you leave a toxic environment like this and go to a cool one where people listen to you, value you, you realize how much time you have wasted (Katherine).

[after leaving the company] I decided to open my mind a little [...] so I was already starting to see that there was a universe that was not ACME’s universe or that ACME was in that universe, but it was not its time (Lise).

In their trajectory at ACME, the professionals undertook initiatives that allowed them to claim and be granted the leader identity, in part of the cases achieving a certain formal advancement at the beginning of their careers. Gradually, however, their actions in the role of leader did not produce effective progress in the construction of this identity, as a result of the barriers imposed by the company on them. The manifestation of defense mechanisms in the narratives denotes the identity threat caused by the denial of the leader’s identity and the ambivalence provoked by the situation. These experiences may have impacted them even more due to the little professional experience they had in other contexts.

Individuals are strongly motivated to maintain and act upon their identities in order to achieve a sense of stability and continuity over time, as well as to sustain a high level of self-esteem (Shamir, 1991). However, this action was made unfeasible for the interviewees because of the persistent denial of the leader identity by the company to them. The reports suggest that the identity threat caused by this experience had a profound negative impact on the self-concept of these professionals, giving rise to insecurity and a feeling of powerlessness, in a corrosive cycle that fostered their longevity in this situation and the forgoing of this identity.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The present study analyzes the forgoing of leader identity by women who exercise leadership informally, addressing factors that favor their retention in a company where there are no prospects for upward mobility, and the psychological impacts triggered by persistent institutional denial of their identities. The participants’ accounts suggest that forgoing leader identity is associated with experiencing persistent institutional refusal to formally grant this identity to them, which thwarted social identity construction. These continual denials to women who performed leadership in practice, and the ambivalence inherent to such condition, elicited identity threats, which unleashed the defense mechanisms observed. They undermined self-recognition as leaders to the professionals, that is, the individual internalization of this identity (DeRue & Asford, 2010), resulting in its forgoing. The existence of surrogates for the leader’s identity and the use of job crafting enabled identity development to a certain extent and made it psychologically bearable for the professionals to remain in the company. However, these experiences were insufficient for the complete construction of a leadership identity. In particular, job crafting seems to have strengthened the desire for the identity—although without encouraging the search for its achievement—and worsened the distress for not thoroughly living it.

The research contributes to knowledge in several aspects. First, by observing that surrogates of the leader identity (i.e., the exercise of job functions in which some aspects associated with the identity are experienced) somewhat contributed to their continued condition of forgoing identity. However, surrogates proved to be insufficient for the professionals to wholly fulfill values related to the leader identity.

Another factor observed in the forgoing identity process was job crafting, as described in the literature (Obodaru, 2017). Our study highlights that the job crafting strategy in informal leader identity practice may also intensify the fixation on the forgone identity (Burgess et al., 2022), since it brings out the longing for something absent: formal leadership granting.

Regarding the literature on forgone professional identities, the findings oppose optimistic views about alternative ways to experiencing them as always beneficial to individuals (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001), capable of promoting a deeper understanding of themselves (Obodaru, 2017), and of preventing the harmful effects that the fixation on a forgone identity can produce, such as indifference to the present (Burgess et al., 2022). The results indicate that, as far as the leader identity, these surrogates should be treated with caution and not encouraged as much as possible.

Furthermore, our observations on the use of job crafting also suggest that it can have dual consequences, which is in line with the study by Berg, Grant, and Johnson (2010). These authors argue that this strategy provides well-being and meaning, but, concomitantly, causes regret for not fully realizing the vocation and stress due to the effort needed for its performance. In the case of the leader identity, the ambiguity may be caused by a factor not previously discussed in the literature: the suffering faced due to the lack of formal recognition of this identity, despite the exercise of informal leadership, as demonstrated by the interviewees. They constantly faced frustration and a feeling of injustice as a result of this situation. This is a point that should be considered in the literature on job crafting and leadership regarding marginalized groups, such as women, because of the weight that the formal recognition of leadership caries for these groups in the work context. A further distinction from the aforementioned research refers to regret. The participants did not manifest it during their careers at ACME, i.e., while resorting to the job crafting strategy; and only some of them mentioned having felt regret after leaving the company.

As for the literature on identity threats, the observed outcomes also partially dispute the understanding that the rationalization defense mechanism promotes benefits to self-esteem, psychological well-being, and persistence in long-term goals (Yong et al., 2021), i.e., that “on average, over time, it pays” (Cushman, 2020, p. 3). Although the mechanism may have been an important resource to maintain women’s well-being and self-esteem at a tolerable level, it also favored their continuity in an unsatisfactory situation, unfavorable to achieving the hierarchical advancement they desired.

The conclusions of this study are consistent with the understanding that defense mechanisms, although aimed at self-protection, may have negative consequences: they can distort the interpretation of circumstances, leading individuals to neglect their essential aspects (Sedikides, 2021; vanDellen et al., 2011). Self-protective defenses shield in the short term, but in the long term they can be extremely harmful, as they prevent learning and growth, in addition to diverting the mind from effective problem solving (Cohen & Sherman, 2014). Even if they are not initially a cause, but rather a consequence arised from the lived experience, defense mechanisms contributed to the retention of the professionals at ACME because they seem to have believed in these narratives (Cushman, 2020; Sedikides, 2021; vanDellen et al., 2011). These beliefs can distort action planning and lead to self-sabotage (D’Cruz, 2020).

Forgoing identities and alternative selves should be understood in the context of power relations (Brown, 2019), given that individual autonomy in the construction of identities is constrained by subjective power relations and disciplinary processes (Alvesson & Willmott, 2002; Fleming & Spicer, 2003), as well as by survival practices and strategies within organizations (Collinson, 2003). Our observations suggest that the identity threat and ambiguity produced by structures that benefited from the professionals’ leadership while refusing its formal recognition in a discriminatory and pervasive way, explain, at least in part, the emergence of feelings of insecurity, powerlessness and fear inherent to forgoing the identity and remaining in such condition.

With respect to the literature concerning identity, although there is a growing understanding of its transience, there is no consensus on the degree to which this occurs (Brown, 2015). The findings of the present study indicate that forgone professional identities—identities that do not have formal recognition and entail alternative selves—may have significant stability, considering that the participants sustained them vividly for many years, as observed in another recent study (Burgess et al., 2022). In the same sense, additional research argues that the loss of identities at work does not imply the abandonment or adaptation of the meanings individuals assign to themselves (Brown et al., 2021).

In relation to the literature on leadership and gender, we should emphasize the importance that these leaders in STEM sector attribute to the formal recognition of their leadership. The use of job crafting did not prevent the interviewees from living in a relative state of apathy towards work, contrary to what Burgess and colleagues (2022) suggest. It is presumed that the centrality of the leader identity for them has contributed to the outcome, as well as to the ambivalent consequences of job crafting.

From a practical point of view, women leaders must be alert of the psychological consequences that living with discriminatory barriers to their advancement can impose—especially in ambiguous situations such as those experienced by the interviewed participants—so that they can make conscious decisions about their careers. In addition, due to psychosocial conditioning to which they are subjected by society since childhood, many women may have a stronger tendency to avoid fear and competitiveness and, thus, to opt for apparent security instead of autonomy (Dowling, 2022). At the organizational level, discriminatory barriers can promote negative reactions to work and limit women’s leadership potential, despite the use of job crafting strategies and the presence of surrogates for the leader’s identity. This point corroborates the relevance of policies that promote equality as beneficial to companies themselves (Triana et al., 2021).

As limitations of the research, it is noteworthy that the participants’ reports are subject to biases, especially because they occurred in retrospect. Furthermore, given the inductive and non-probabilistic nature of the study, the findings are not generalizable, and the suggested cause-and-effect relationships require further studies to be confirmed. However, analyzing trajectories experienced in a single company was important because it enabled the observation of structural factors that acted systematically and deteriorated the professionals’ capacity for agency. In this way, these factors were decisive for their long tenure in the organization. The small number of participants in the research is also noteworthy, and it is suggested that future studies seek to overcome this limitation by applying other methods to expand knowledge on the subject.

Future studies can also expand knowledge by investigating the same phenomenon in other organizational contexts, especially in different economic sectors and in the public sphere, since gender configurations are unique in distinct segments, and even between STEM sectors (Eagly, 2021). Moreover, in the public sector, the greater stability of jobs could possibly lead to prolonged tenure in activities that do not contemplate desired identities, which makes it relevant to expand research on the topic. Longitudinal studies would also be interesting for investigations about the subject, as they allow process perspectives. It is also suggested that comparative studies be carried out with male and female leaders, in order to investigate how gender issues (and other social identities) influence remaining in a situation that hinders the full realization of one’s leader identity.

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• DATA AVAILABILITY
  The dataset that supports the results of this study is not publicly available because it contains information that could compromise the privacy of the research participants.
• REVIEWERS
  Adauto de Vasconcelos Montenegro (Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Ceará, Fortaleza / CE - Brazil). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6952-0739
• REVIEWERS
  Angela Brandão Estellita Lins (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro / RJ - Brazil).
• REVIEWERS
  One of the reviewers did not authorize the disclosure of their identity.
• PEER REVIEW REPORT
  The peer review report is available at this link: https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/93585/87501
• 15
  [Translated version] Note: All quotes in English translated by this article’s translator.

Edited by

• EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
  Hélio Arthur Reis Irigaray (Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro / RJ - Brazil). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9580-7859

• ASSOCIATE EDITOR
  Fabricio Stocker (Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro / RJ - Brazil). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6340-9127

Data availability

The dataset that supports the results of this study is not publicly available because it contains information that could compromise the privacy of the research participants.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  01 Sept 2025
• Date of issue
  2025

History

• Received
  16 June 2023
• Accepted
  11 Dec 2024