Identity ambiguity and the promises and practices of hybrid e-HRM project teams
The role of IS project team identity work in the enactment of day-to-day relationships with their internal clients is under-researched. We address this gap by examining the identity work undertaken by an electronic human resource management (e-HRM) hybrid project team engaged in an enterprise-wide IS implementation for their multi-national organisation. Utilising social identity theory, we identify three distinctive, interrelated dimensions of project team identity work (project team management, team value propositions (promises) and the teams knowledge practice). We reveal how dissonance between two perspectives of e-HRM project identity work (clients expected norms of project teams service and project teams expected norms of themselves) results in identity ambiguity. Our research contributions are to identity studies in the IS project management, HR and hybrid literatures and to managerial practice by challenging the assumption that hybrid experts are the panacea for problems associated with IS projects.
identity ambiguity e-hrm project team identity work social identity value propositions knowledge practice