Relationships between Voice, Silence and Identity Formation in Organizations

• Author: Moasa, H.
• Position: National School of Political and Administrative Studies
• Pages: 63-70

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov  Vol. 5 (54) No. 1 - 2012

Series VII: Social Sciences  Law

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN VOICE,

SILENCE AND IDENTITY

FORMATION IN ORGANIZATIONS

Horia MOAŞA1

Abstract: Language and voice are very important in the formation of

identity, but if that very language/ voice is absent because of censorship,

silencing or lack of voice, limited discursive or symbolic resources, how are

individuals going to construct their identity? O n the one hand, the challenge

of identity is to incorporate multiple and diverse elements in order to build a

sense of self-continuity and coherence. On the othe r hand, multiple and

diverse moments and contexts offer people the possibility to tell many

different identity stories which can be contradictory, changing, disparate and

fundamentally unstable. This latter view leads to a m ore postmodern

definition of identity that will be analyzed here in relation to voice and

silence.

Key words: voice, silence, identity, social constructivism, postmodernism,

dramaturgy, self-narrative.

1 National School of Political and Administrative Studies.

1. Introduction

Language and voice are very important

in the formation of identity, but if that very

language/voice is absent because of

censorship, silencing or lack of voice,

limited discursive or symbolic resources,

how are individuals going to construct

their identity?

Voice and silence are tightly connected

to the identity formation pr ocess because

they are strategic communicative resources

that individuals use in order to construct a

sense of self that will enable them to

survive, get by and advance inside their

organization.

This article strives to present not only the

interplay between voice, silence and

identity, but also multiple connected ways

in which individuals construct their

identities inside organizations.

Four main approaches will be discussed

in relation to the identity formation

process:

- Identity as self-narrative – how actors

make sense of and project t heir self

through self-narratives an d how these

could be stable and coherent or changeable

and fractured.

- Identity between agency and structure

– how actors are torn between accepting

symbolic or discursive resources and

creating new ones, adapting or changing

existing ones.

- Identity as dramaturgical endeavor –

“how the l ooking glass of other’s

reactions” [5, p. 385] becomes not only a

means to construct, anchor, verify and