Extended self and possessions in the workplace

By Kelly Tian, R. Belk. 2005

305 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study of the meanings of possessions displayed in the offices of employees in a high technology firm suggests extensions to the concept of extended self. Work self and home self contend for dominance in these displays. Employees must decide which aspects of the self belong to the domain of work and which belong elsewhere. In these ongoing negotiations self may be extended, but it may also be retracted and hidden. Furthermore, although possessions can serve to stabilize the self, they also facilitate shifting among various self-aspects in response to workplace events. We explicate these processes and discuss implications for extended self theory.

Subfields: Marketing, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3620f65215a83771c2fdef427e9845ee15c20267

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Citations in the corpus

Extended Self in a Digital World (2013, background): “For factual information, Tian and Belk (2005) found that memory devices in the workplace included various “pros- thetic” technological extensions of self (e.g., computer and phone contact lists, calendars, files, and calculators).”
Mutuality (2016, unknown): “…an egocentric approach to understanding social phenomena, an approach rooted in the same instrumental and social psychological worldview (e.g., Tian and Belk, 2005) that undergirds many variants of consumer psychology, economic analysis, and much social exchange theory (Ekeh, 1974), despite…”
A psychological ownership approach to designing object attachment (2015, background): “Self-identity Objects help create, continue, or transform our identities (Belk 1987, 1988; Kleine and Baker 2004; Schouten 1991; Tian and Belk 2005).”
Memories as Assets: Strategic Memory Protection in Choice over Time (2009, result): “Indeed, results from study 1 using participants’ own past personal experiences and their openended responses provide support for this hypothesis.”
Exploring the impact of employees’ self-concept, brand identification and brand pride on brand citizenship behaviors (2016, background): ““Pride occurswhen individuals appraise a positive event as relevant to their identity and their goals for their identity” (Tracy et al., 2014, p. 210). Similarly, Kraemer andGouthier (2014) explain that organizational pride requires high social identification with the organization, which also sugges”
Mapping symbolic (anti-) consumption (2009, background): “…products revolve Three-way interactions across individuals groups and products Positive symbolic consumption Meanings of possessions Belk (1988); Tian and Belk, 2005) Congruency (Sirgy et al., 1997; Kressmann et al., 2006) Possession attachment (Kleine, Kleine, and Allen, 1995) Negative…”