Power between emotions and identities: how designers navigate M&A processes

-Drawing on literature on emotions management and identity work strategies, in this study
we investigate how, following an M&A process with a consulting firm, emotion and identity
work strategies might explain the patterns of change in the designers’ identity. In this regard,
we focus on the political nature of the relationship between emotions and identity. Relying
on data from 64 in-depth interviews with designers and consultants, as part of a broader
ethnographic study, this manuscript elaborates a theoretical model which illustrates the
political processes underpinning the relationship between emotion management and
identity work strategies. Through this research, we contribute to extant literature
emphasizing a processual view of the link between emotions and identity, by providing a
more fine-grained explanation of power-based processes underlying emotions and identity
strategies. We highlight how emotions could be managed for the political purpose of
influencing the status of professional groups within an organization, and we illustrate how
this emotions-political processes might lead to different identity strategies, ranging from
identity affirmation to diminishing and renouncing to one’s own professional identity