Managing the ambiguous and conflicting identities of `upline' and `downline' in a network marketing firm

Abstract

This is a study of how ambiguous identities are interactionally managed in network marketing discourse. Network marketing, as an enterprise `using' friendship to promote products, has been notorious for its exploitative use of interpersonal meaning. In this study, the interactions between supervisors (known as `uplines') and subordinates (known as `downlines') in network marketing firms have been studied and their relationship was found to be ambiguous and conflicting. On the one hand, they are `friends' because of the strong emphasis on rapport and harmony in the philosophy of network marketing; on the other hand, the supervisors have to regulate their downlines, which unfortunately lacks the legitimacy found in traditional business firms, as neither of them is an employee of their company. These ambiguous and conflicting identities motivate the participants to mobilize pertinent identities so as to manage conflicts, justify themselves and resume control. Previous research has shown that identities are both interactionally and retrospectively constructed. This study adds to our understanding that identities are not only products of interactions but that they are also interactional resources, which can be mobilized by participants to achieve their goals, although the identity mobilization does not always result in harmony owing to the inherent incompatiblity of the identities invoked. Implications for identity formation in contemporary firms are also drawn.