Professionals reacting to identity crisis: exploring threats, struggles and coping behaviours

Purpose The paper explores the relationships between identity struggles and their antecedents and consequences to understand identity dynamics across different professions as a process of reaction and counter-reaction to identity threats and struggles. Design/methodology/approach By adopting an integrated view of professional identity, the paper employs a systematic literature review, paying particular attention to the micro-politics and identity dynamics to explore the relationship threats, struggles and coping behaviours. Findings The paper maps out the threats, struggles and coping behaviours across different professions and the relationships existing between them. The paper also abstracts the findings into a conceptual model for understanding professional identity formation as an iterative process involving identity struggles, threats and coping behaviours. Originality/value The paper, bringing together studies with different theoretical and ontological approaches to professional identity, reconciles the literature to provide a detailed account of the nuances characterizing the identity work made by professionals to deal with events threatening their identities. Unlike previous studies, the paper elaborates on how threatening events and struggles shape professionals’ reactions, acknowledging the interdependency between macro, meso and micro levels. By doing so, the paper provides theoretical and practical insights into unstable identities and the work made by professionals to cope with identity uncertainty and crisis.