Telfer Research Seminar Series - Sean Buchanan

***M.Sc. Students, these seminars can count towards the six mandatory Telfer Research Seminars Series required for your program (MGT 6191/ MGT 6991 / MHS 6991) (4 seminars for MSc Project-based students).***

Sean Buchanan, PhD

Growing homogenization of political identities in organizations is increasing the prevalence of ideological misfits – organizational members with a minority political identity. Ideological misfits face ongoing conflict between their organizational and political identification, yet existing research has not fully explored the different ways that misfits can resolve this identity conflict. We develop a conceptual framework that outlines two different identification pathways for ideological misfits who remain in their organizations: tempered radicalism and untempered radicalism. These divergent pathways are enabled by different types of organizational identification and have unique impacts on misfit behavior in organizations. We then theorize the factors that determine the pathway a misfit will pursue. Drawing on significance quest theory, we argue that ongoing violations of misfits' political identities trigger a quest for significance in these individuals that involves two core activities: valorizing misfit status and strengthening ingroup connections. We describe how nature of these activities determines the pathway a misfit will pursue and outline how individual and organizational factors related to identity disclosure moderate this relationship. Our framework advances research on ideological misfits and the bidirectional relationship between organizations and political polarization.