ABSTRACT
We opened this volume with the question: When and how does applying a positive lens to the construct of identity generate new insights for organizational researchers? In responding to this question, the contributors to this volume have made substantial progress toward addressing the six goals that inspired this book. In addition, the contributors to this volume have started us on a journey into a new frontier of identity research by motivating the pursuit of new research questions, charting the course toward relevant identity research, and paving the way with new approaches to identity research. In this conclusion, we provide an initial roadmap of this new research frontier by highlighting new insights that can be gleaned from the chapters in this volume regarding the positivity of identity content, identity processes, and outcomes of identity for individuals, dyads, groups, organizations, and communities. We also demonstrate how several themes that emerge across the levels of analysis build conceptual and empirical pathways toward a deeper and broader understanding of identity and organizational studies that we hope enriches both theory and practice. We close with an invitation for others to join us in exploring this exciting new frontier.
