The importance of being 'something': Identity centrality and work outcomes in off-shored call centers in India

Existing studies of identity dynamics have shown that employees embody multiple social identities, and have multiple foci of identifications at work that shape their attitudes and behaviors. However, there remains an urgent need to extend these frameworks to the context of emergent global workplaces. In this paper, we focus on one such significant instance of contemporary globalization: the transnational service work in the international call center industry in India. Here we explore how national identity, religious identity and occupational identity centralities affect outcomes such as employee performance, intention to leave, stress and burnout over and above those engendered by organizational identification (OI). In our findings national identity centrality emerges as the most important predictor of outcomes as a main effect, and also the variable that significantly moderates the relationship of OI with performance and burnout. We also find some additional support for organizational identification and occupational identity centrality.