Discourses, Identities and Well-Being

Organizations’ impact on employees’ health has been in focus of an increasing interest for Swedish work environment research. Most research though is based on population studies with a structuralist point of departure, i.e. the research has focused if organization and well-being are connected and, if so, what organizational structures, aspects or factors that are of importance. In this research proposal the current research focus is problematized and an alternative view, based on a constructionist and discursive approach is outlined. The proposal departs from the view that identity and organizations are socially and discursively constructed. Identity is seen as a biographical story of oneself, before oneself and others, and organizations as the organizing possible within the discursive frames we use. Hence, when we talk we are constructing our identities as well as our organizations. The research question is to explore how the discourses used at work (organizational as well as others) might affect our identity work and our well-being / ill-being connected to that. The research proposal also includes a method section aligned with the chosen approach, outlining the deliberations on methodology and method concerning focus group as a generator of empirical material for social and discursive phenomena