#12781. Workplace boredom as an empowering experience: a psychoanalytic reconceptualization of boredom and identity in organizations

September 2026publication date
Proposal available till 29-05-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

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Journal’s subject area:
Cultural Studies;
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management;
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Abstract:
The study develops a psychoanalytic perspective on boredom as an important resource for narratively constructing the self with significant implications for how functional it is. By employing a Lacanian framework, the study suggests that prior research, investigating boredom mainly as a widespread individual problem in organizations, has emphasized one aspect of how boredom interacts with identity, namely its imaginary function. While research emphasizing more constructive aspects of boredom seems to emphasize boredoms symbolic function. The study explores how we can better understand the latter, as it has the potential to unsettle identity work, and, thereby, empower individuals to connect differently to themselves and others in transformative ways. Specifically, the study suggests that the extent to which boredom serves empowering functions depends on the discursive movement that individuals undertake as they engage in identity work.
Keywords:
Boredom; identity; Lacan; psychoanalysis

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