The “Real Self” and Inauthenticity: The Importance of Self-Concept Anchorage for Emotional Experiences in the Workplace

Abstract

I examine the utility of self-concept anchorage (as described by Turner 1976) in the analysis of inauthenticity in the workplace. As controlling internally felt emotion may distance the worker from her true feelings or true self, the management of emotion in the workplace can produce feelings of inauthenticity in the worker. This relationship has been demonstrated in previous research. However, as noted by some researchers, the relationship between emotion management and inauthenticity assumes that workers experience spontaneous, unmanaged emotions as representative of their true self (an impulsive orientation to emotion). I analyze a worker's self-concept orientation as a moderator of the relationship between emotion management in the workplace and feelings of inauthenticity. The results reveal the importance of considering self-concept anchorage in analyses of inauthenticity in the workplace; however, the effect appears at the level of emotional feeling rather than display.