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12 August 20082008 22: 258 originally published onlineManagement Communication Quarterly
Rebecca J. MeisenbachHigher Education Fund-Raisers
(Dis)empowerment in Occupational Identity Negotiation AmongWorking With Tensions: Materiality, Discourse, and
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Working With Tensions
Materiality, Discourse, and
(Dis)empowerment in Occupational
Identity Negotiation Among Higher
Education Fund-Raisers
Rebecca J. MeisenbachUniversity of MissouriColumbia
The increasing time requirements and perceived value of occupations raises
concerns about creating and managing positive occupational identities. The
author explains how individuals pursue moments of micro emancipation and
empowerment as they negotiate the positive and negative discourses and material
realities of occupational identity within the fund-raising occupation. Interviews
with higher education fund-raisers reveal six power-laden and discourse-
influenced ways of understanding (framing) fund-raising. The findings suggest
that the potential for an empowered occupational identity resides in an individ-
uals ability to shift among framings, managing and maintaining material and
discursive tensions surrounding the framings rather than eliminating or avoiding
these tensions. Implications of these identity negotiations for various occupa-
tions and particularly the nonprofit sector are discussed.
Keywords: occupational identity; empowerment; fund-raising; materiality;
professionalism
The current shifting of job security and stability toward job insecurityand instability, coupled with the increasing amounts of time that manyemployees engage in paid work, can lead to challenges for workers in
making meaning of their work and their senses of self. Lair, Sullivan, and
Cheney (2005) noted that the trend toward personal branding of workers
promotes a belief that the individual is responsible for his or her own career,
whether a success or failure. This belief in personal agency, along with the
Management
Communication Quarterly
Volume 22 Number 2
November 2008 258-287
2008 Sage Publications
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hosted at
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258
Authors Note: This article is based on data collected for the authors dissertation, which was
completed under the direction of Patrice M. Buzzanell and Josh Boyd. The author wishes to
thank her advisors, the anonymous reviewers, andMCQ editor Jim Barker for their helpful
comments.
8/12/2019 Working With Tensions
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belief that employees should be happy in their work, individualizes the
meaning-making process and simultaneously encourages individuals to
project appropriately disciplined professional selves and to derive a positivesense of self from such constructions. These individuals are turning toward
occupations and individual careers as sites of stability for their social iden-
tities. But although entire occupations may be more stable than particular
organizations in the contemporary landscape, occupations are still suscep-
tible to a wide range of influences from both inside organizations and
society. It is not surprising then that scholars are calling for more attention
to meanings and consequences of occupation, work, and professionalism in
relation to identity negotiation (Ashcraft, 2007; Cheney & Ashcraft, 2007;Cheney, Zorn, Planalp, & Lair, in press; Lair et al., 2005).
Within research on identity negotiation, resistance, and empowerment,
Ashcraft and Mumby (2004) noted that despite increasing acceptance of
identities as sites of tension and fragmentation, existing identity studies still
tend to lack dialectical explanation of the social processes through which
identity organization occurs. Furthermore, as suggested above, material
conditions play into occupational choices and identities, yet scholars have
neglected the material aspects of identity negotiation (Cheney & Ashcraft,2007). Others have argued that awareness of tensions in identity negotiation
necessitates studies that demonstrate how organizational members
respond to and manage the binds in which they find themselves (Pepper &
Larson, 2006, pp. 51-52) and consideration of more productive ways of liv-
ing with such tensions (Ashcraft & Trethewey, 2004).
Specifically, this project recognizes that just as tensions are present
within traditional organizational boundaries (as assessed by Pepper &
Larson, 2006), they are also present in occupations, affecting the construc-
tion and negotiation of increasingly important occupational identities.
Furthermore, Tracy and Trethewey (2005) pointed out that jobs may be
chosen and avoided based on the extent to which they support preferred
organizational or, as is argued here, occupational selves. Therefore, man-
agement and organizational scholars interested in what makes a particular
career well liked and desired should turn their attention toward understand-
ing occupational identities and their tensions. Ashcraft (2005, 2007;
Ashcraft & Mumby, 2004) has started this kind of empirical work by
researching identity negotiation in a generally admired occupation, that ofairline pilots. She has called for further studies of how occupational prac-
titioners tweak available discourse as they navigate tensions between his-
torical discourses and contemporary changes in occupations (Ashcraft,
2007, p. 28). Research on occupational identity tensions should expand to
Meisenbach / Working With Tensions 259
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focus on the tweaking of these discourses and identities in emerging and
less universally admired occupations (e.g., Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999). In
terms of occupation types, Cheney et al. (in press) have also argued thatscholars need to broaden the locus of research on meaningful work beyond
for-profit organizations. Thus, by studying less admired occupations that are
also distinct from those found in U.S. for-profit corporations, researchers can
obtain a fuller picture of the management of occupational identity tensions
and their implications.
Fund-raising is an ideal occupation in which to study identity-negotiation
tensions because it is an emerging yet reputationally complicated occupa-
tion within nonprofit and nongovernmental sectors around the globe. Justwithin the United States in 2006 alone, Americans gave approximately
$295 billion to nonprofit organizations (Giving USA, 2007). Furthermore,
scholars have conservatively estimated that during the next 50 years $41
trillion in wealth will be transferred from one generation to the next. With
approximately $6 trillion of that money going to charities (Havens &
Schervish, 2000), fund-raisers are expected to play an essential role in the
future of the sector. Most recently, public higher education institutions have
come to recognize the value of staff fund-raisers (Brittingham & Pezzullo,1990). Although the United States leads the way in this kind of philan-
thropy, other countries are following suit, and the increasing international-
ization of philanthropic efforts only increases the relevance of and interest
in this particular occupation.
Yet the interest in fund-raisers is not always positive. Fund-raisers are
closely connected to major public concerns about the nonprofit sectors
potential to raise and use donated funds inappropriately (Kelly, 1998).
Payton (1987) noted that a lot of people dont want to be bothered with
fund-raising, dont like it, find it distasteful and dont want to be involved
with it at all (p. 133). Fund-raisers construct occupational identities amidst
these tensions and perceptions, and for the nonprofit sector to sustain itself,
ideally they will be positive and empowered ones.
Thus, by focusing on the occupational identity negotiations of higher
education fund-raisers, I explain how individuals in a growing, sometimes
revered, and sometimes despised career make sense of their work selves
while managing the tensions inherent in their work and surrounding histor-
ical and social discourses. The present findings suggest that positive andempowered occupational identities involve constant shifting in the discur-
sive construction of occupational selves rather than maintenance of a
monolithic sense of self. This movement is noteworthy in that people use it
to manage and maintain (rather than conquer or eliminate) the tensions and
260 Management Communication Quarterly
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power relations inherent in and surrounding the occupation. I begin by
developing a theoretical framework from recent research on identity nego-
tiation and the current issues surrounding fund-raising as an occupation. Ithen use the framework to interpret 18 in-depth interviews with higher edu-
cation fund-raisers as they talk about their work and occupational identities.
The findings illustrate the transient character of empowerment processes
and the tension-filled dynamics of occupational identity negotiations for
fund-raisers.
Identities
Research on identity in organizational settings has grown in recent
years, considering issues such as the roles of gender (e.g., Ashcraft &
Mumby, 2004; Jorgenson, 2002; Tracy & Scott, 2006), professionalism
(e.g., Dyer & Keller-Cohen, 2000; Jorgenson, 2000), narratives (e.g., Dyer
& Keller-Cohen, 2000; Holmes, 2005), organizational control (e.g.,
Alvesson & Willmott, 2002; Ashcraft, 2005), and societal discourses (e.g.,
Ashcraft, 2007; Kuhn, 2006) in the processes of identity negotiation. Thesestudies have articulated identity as a socially constructed process, and many
of them have explicitly taken a poststructuralist stance toward the concept,
in which identities are conceptualized as fragmented, shifting, conflicted,
and lacking in coherence (e.g., Ashcraft & Mumby, 2004; Holmer-
Nadesan, 1996; Kondo, 1990; Kuhn, 2006; Shotter & Gergen, 1989; Tracy
& Scott, 2006; Tracy & Trethewey, 2005). In contrast, structuralist identity
assumptions suggest that a real and stable self exists, but the individual
must seek it out and uphold it. From a structuralist perspective, identity is
viewed as a relatively fixed essence that a person has; it is locatable and sta-
tic. Poststructuralist approaches challenge these structuralist assumptions.
Tracy and Trethewey (2005) illuminated the assumptions of a poststruc-
turalist approach to identity through the metaphor of a crystallized identity,
in which individuals identities may grow, change, and reflect differently in
different moments. Although this notion of identity may sound uncomfort-
able, they posited that poststructuralist understandings of identity can free
individuals to more readily embrace different senses of self in different
moments, offering an empowering potential. However, future researchneeds to provide empirical evidence of anyone enacting a crystallized iden-
tity and/or realizing this empowering potential.
Within identity-negotiation research, scholars frequently attend to issues
of control and resistance. This focus is natural because a poststructuralist
Meisenbach / Working With Tensions 261
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approach to identity suggests that these identities are developed in the con-
text of power relations (Alvesson, 2000, p. 1105) and that identity is
partly a temporary outcome of the powers and regulations that the subjectencounters (Krreman & Alvesson, 2001, p. 63). Alvesson and Willmott
(2002) have distinguished between identity regulation and identity work.
Identity regulation focuses on how discourses generate and control self-
identities. In contrast, identity work represents individuals interpretations
of and reactions (including resistance) to various discourses.
Of particular importance for the current project, Alvesson and Willmott
(2002) also pointed out that acknowledging identity-negotiation processes
as fluid and unstable highlights opportunities for microemancipation aswell as openings for newforms of subordination and oppression (p. 638).
Micro emancipation involves an emphasis on partial, temporary move-
ments that break away from diverse forms of oppression, rather than suc-
cessive moves towards a predetermined state of liberation (Alvesson &
Willmott, 1996, p. 172). These emancipatory movements thus pursue and
sometimes generate empowerment for the individual. Empowerment is a
sense of ability to control or influence ones circumstances (see Albrecht,
1988; Papa, Singhal, Ghanekar, & Papa, 2000).Recent identity research addresses the role of discourse in this identity
workregulation process (Kuhn, 2006; Musson & Duberley, 2007). Mumby
(2004) defined discourse as a material, embodied, performative process
through which social actors construct their identities in a dynamic, contra-
dictory and precarious fashion (p. 247). Kuhn (2006) noted that although
scholars are recognizing the breadth of discursive resources that are rele-
vant to identity work and regulation, studies rarely consider how organi-
zational discourses influence identity formation, and even more rarely
attend to discourses beyond the artificial boundaries of the organization
(p. 1342). The current project attends to these discourses.
Along with the interest in discourse, scholars advocate a dialectical
approach to studies of (dis)empowerment and control or resistance that
considers the simultaneity of such factors (e.g., Mumby, 2005; Papa et al.,
2000). Ashcraft (2005) used this perspective in discussing how airline
pilots overt discursive acts of consent can also function as moments of
resistance. It is important that rather than assuming that identity tensions
must be resolved, Mumbys approach relies on Adornos concept of nega-tive dialectics, which refuses to engage in transcendence or grand syn-
thesis and chooses the more difficult path of keeping tensions and
contradictions in constant play (Mumby, 2005, p. 22). Similarly, Pepper
and Larson (2006) noted the ubiquity of tensions in organizing and their
262 Management Communication Quarterly
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potential for positive and negative outcomes. Yet in their study of cultural
identity tensions surrounding a corporate merger, their findings revealed the
tensions (conflicting premises competing to define individuals) as negativeexperiences that generated conflict and anxiety and unhealthy and
unproductive organizational cultures (p. 52). The negativity of the experi-
ence of these identity tensions might have been tied to the postacquisition
context of the study, suggesting that further study should explore the posi-
tive and/or negative experience of identity tensions in other situations.
Most relevant to the current project is occupational identity, which is a type
of group or social identity in that it represents how individuals construct their
sense of who they are and what they do in relation to their jobs.1
Tracy andScott (2006) offered a fairly static definition of occupational identity as cen-
tral, distinctive, and enduring characteristics that typify a line of work (p. 7),
but this definition seems to be at odds with the fragmentation and changeabil-
ity associated with the poststructuralist view they take in their overall project.
More clearly reflecting poststructuralist assumptions of fragmentation and
changeability, Ashcraft (2007) noted that the formation of occupational iden-
tity is an ongoing persuasive endeavor that traverses time and space, macro
and micro messages, institutions and actors, and that serves to (re)organizework by mobilizing discourses of difference in response to lived pressures and
material circumstances (p. 15). Similar to Alvesson and Willmotts (2002)
identity regulation and work, she described occupational identity as consisting
of occupational image discourse (public discourses regarding the occupation)
and role communication (the individuals day-to-day practices and experi-
ences of doing the job). However, I believe that the use of the term role invites
confusion over distinctions between roles and identities. Thus, I define occu-
pational identity as the shifting, material, and discursive framing of image and
practices associated with a particular type of work.
Overall, recent identity research has opened up questions about the lived
experience of identity negotiations, particularly what theorized micro practices
of empowerment look like in practice and how individuals experience tensions
across and among conflicting sources of identity regulation. This need, coupled
with the increasing importance of occupational identities for those in growing
and sometimes tainted occupations, serves as the impetus for this study.
Managing the Occupational Identities of Fund-Raisers
Fund-raising is an emerging and rapidly growing career option. Although
the first staff fund-raisers tended to find their positions accidentally, the field
Meisenbach / Working With Tensions 263
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is slowly developing into a purposefully chosen career path (Kelly, 1998;
Wagner, 2002). The jobs tend to be plentiful, well paid (comparatively
within the nonprofit sector), and autonomous. In fact, fund-raising hasrecently been listed by U.S. News & World Reportas one of the best careers
for the coming years, along with firefighting, investment banking, and 28
other careers (Nemko, 2007).
As in other developing careers, this growth affects occupational identity.
Factors that are relevant to the reputation of fund-raisers include (a) the
fields high turnover rate and fieldwide competition for good fund-raisers,
(b) greater organizational dependence on and competition for private sup-
port, and (c) increased attention to and public concern about how funds areraised and used (Association of Fundraising Professionals, 2007; Duronio
& Tempel, 1997; Hall, 2007). Although the increased need and competition
for fund-raising dollars, along with connections to admired causes such as
education, enhance the prestige of fund-raisers, on the downside fund-
raisers face (a) long hours, (b) extensive travel requirements, (c) pressure to
produce quick, visible, and sometimes unrealistic results for their organiza-
tions, and (d) resentment by other members of the nonprofit sector for fund-
raisers perceived higher pay and proclivity to abandon one organizationfor another. Meisenbach and Jones (2003) found that some educational fund-
raisers still face disapproval from their own families regarding their career
choices. Overall, based on survey responses from nearly 1,800 fund-raisers
and 82 interviews, Duronio and Tempel (1997) found that fund-raisers fre-
quently face negative public and self-perceptions.
Although facing issues with their image and reputation, the onset of
Havens and Schervishs (2000) predicted transfer of wealth also means that
Americas fund-raisers are embarking on a half century of fund-raising that
can make them the heroes of the nonprofit sector. Existing research has
revealed and explained little about how individuals in growing but tainted
occupations negotiate positive and negative identities amidst these public
and self-perceptions. As a growing and alternately revered and tainted (see
Tracy & Scott, 2006) occupation, fund-raising offers a rich locus for seek-
ing greater understanding of occupational identity negotiation as well as
moments of micro emancipation. Thus, I ask,
Research Question 1 (RQ1): How do fund-raisers discursively negotiate theiroccupational identities?
Research Question 2 (RQ2): How do these negotiations disempower and/or
demonstrate paths for micro emancipation for fund-raisers?
264 Management Communication Quarterly
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Method
Participants
The participants in this study are 18 full-time fund-raisers for U.S. institu-
tions of higher education. Within fund-raising, educational institutions employ
more fund-raisers than any other type of nonprofit organization (Caboni, 2001;
Carbone, 1989). Fund-raisers came from six different states (Florida, Indiana,
North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin) and 11 different
public and private institutions. Equal numbers of participants were male and
female. Participants had been fund-raisers between 6 months and 20 years,
representing a total of nearly 170 years of experience, with an average of 9.4
years. They had been in their current positions between 4 months and 17 years,
with an average tenure of 3.6 years. One fund-raiser was in an entry-level posi-
tion, 10 described themselves as having midlevel positions, and 7 described
themselves as middle to high or high-level fund-raisers. In all, 17 participants
described themselves as Caucasian or White (European American), whereas 1
described himself or herself as African American.
Procedures
Participants were located through a snowball sampling technique, begin-
ning with my personal and professional contacts within U.S. higher education
institutions. Participants completed a consent form and biographical question-
naire that supplied demographic information about them and their institutions
(e.g., educational levels, professional association memberships).
Data were then collected through semistructured interviews over a 6-
month period. The four-part interview protocol asked how participants
became fund-raisers, their perceptions and descriptions of being a fund-
raiser, their understandings of fund-raising practices, and their experiences
with a variety of issues related to fund-raising. Example questions included
What was the toughest part of becoming a fund-raiser? What do you like
best about being a fund-raiser? and how would you describe the process
of fund-raising in higher education? In-person interviews typically were
scheduled at the participants offices at their request. Six interviews were
conducted via telephone calls to the participants home or office. The inter-views lasted from 41 to 78 minutes, with an average length of 68 minutes.
All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and verified, resulting in 556
pages of double-spaced text. Identifying information such as names, loca-
tions, and dollar amounts was changed to protect confidentiality.
Meisenbach / Working With Tensions 265
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Using a grounded theory approach, I began analyzing the data as I collected
it (Charmaz, 2000; Glaser & Strauss, 1967). In grounded theory, data gather-
ing and analysis merge insofar as researchers engage in systematic inductivemethods to generate midlevel theory (Charmaz, 2000). As the transcripts were
verified against the audiotapes, I engaged in initial open coding, examining
each line of the data and describing its contents. I wrote brief descriptions in
the margins about what was happening and being articulated in each sentence.
Descriptions included asking for money, learning what to do, helping
others, and building relationships. This process helps keep researchers from
imposing their preexisting beliefs on the data (Charmaz, 2000; Glaser, 1978).
This method was effective because I wanted the ways that fund-raisers nego-tiate their identities and interact with empowerment opportunities to emanate
from their own words rather than be forced into preexisting categories.
I also began the process of writing memos about the data and generating
themes using the constant comparative technique (Charmaz, 2000; Glaser &
Strauss, 1967). Themes were formed out of talk that served to construct a
sense of occupational identity. Thus, any talk that related to the work and
image of the occupation and the individuals who perform this work was
coded. This method generated initial categories that were then refined throughfurther interviews and memoing. For example, early memos focused on ideas
such as fund-raisers frequent articulation of themselves as relationship
builders and students of fund-raising, their focus on making the ask, and
how they viewed their work as being onstage or offstage. During this time,
a secondary researcher also began reading the interview transcripts, engaging
in additional memoing, and discussing categories, themes, and ideas with the
primary researcher. Six ways of framing fund-raising emerged from the
grounded analysis. The memoing process developed an awareness of how
fund-raisers use of these framings simultaneously empowered and disem-
powered the fund-raisers, generating the second research question. When both
researchers independently concluded that interviews were only repeating cat-
egories without revealing new characteristics of these categories (i.e., theoret-
ical saturation, see Patton, 1990), a final two interviews were conducted.
Because no new data continued to emerge, data collection ended.
Negotiating Tensions and (Dis)empowermentin Occupational Identities
The main research question asks how higher education fund-raisers discur-
sively negotiate their occupational identities (RQ1). Fund-raisers interviews
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reveal how they simultaneously employ a variety of discursive frames or ways
of bracketing and making sense of their occupational identity (see, Goffman,
1974). Specifically, the findings reveal six major modes of framing (financial,relational, educational, mission, coordination, and magical framing) on which
fund-raisers discursively rely and often simultaneously accommodate and
resist as they attempt to make meaning of their work and form occupational
identities. The findings foreground combinations of and tensions among dif-
ferent framings or ways of making sense of their occupations. In addition,
these framings simultaneously empower and disempower fund-raisers; that is,
although a particular discursive move toward empowerment may help fund-
raisers manage one discourse-influenced identity tension, the findings demon-strate how that move simultaneously generates new tensions and opportunities
for disempowerment associated with other constraining discourses (see RQ2).
Fund-raisers constantly reframe, refocus, adopt, infuse, challenge, resist,
broaden, and move among these frames as they seek to form, enhance, and
explain their occupational identities in relation to relevant discourses and
empowerment opportunities. Furthermore, fund-raisers occupational identi-
ties are not successfully managed by any one frame winning over another;
rather, their identities are managed by maintaining tensions within and amongframes that stem from materiality and historical and societal discourses.
Therefore, although in the following sections I discuss the (dis)empowerment
opportunities in each framing, I also focus on the tensions among and layer-
ing of framings. The examples shared here are by no means exhaustive of
those found in the transcripts, and I often use examples from the same fund-
raiser in discussing different frames to help demonstrate the overlapping use
of multiple frames by the same person.
Financial Framing
First, financial framing was the most clearly articulated way of framing
the occupational identities of fund-raisers. Its frequency stems from a mate-
rial reality for most fund-raisers in that they must raise money to keep their
jobs. John, an annual fund fund-raiser with 10 years experience declared,
Our job is to ask people for money. If you do not ask, do not like asking
people for money, [then] you ought not to be a fund-raiser. Peter, a major
gifts officer for 19 years, spoke of the material pressure of financial framing,saying, None of its terribly bad other than kind of having $600 million dol-
lars stamped across your forehead every day for 5 years. Chris similarly noted,
Theres so much pressure generated by schools that need money. . . .
And theres a lot of pressure from the president of the institution and the
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financial office all the way through the trustees to simply go look for dol-
lars. These material demands influence how fund-raisers can and want to
frame their work and work selves.Fund-raisers frequently discussed disempowering public images of
themselves as slimy, tin-cup beggars associated with financial framings of
their work. Michele, who had been an annual gifts fund-raiser for 4 years,
noted a common belief that fund-raisers are kinda sleazy, and theyre
kinda out there with used car salesmen according to some folks. Kate,
another annual gifts fund-raiser with 4 years of experience, said,
People are scared when you say that [you are a fund-raiser]. [laughs] Um.They automatically have this, I feel like they have an automatic feeling about
you. People call me things like Oh, youre a money grubber, youre a, oh,
you beg people for money.
Fund-raisers find explanations of what they do to be particularly difficult
when this frame is the only way in which their work is understood. A sub-
servient social taint associated with being a beggar was often perceived by
the fund-raisers when articulating this frame (see Ashforth & Kreiner,
1999). Thus, the discourse of begging for money affects their occupationalidentities and can isolate and stigmatize fund-raisers. By keeping them
from interacting with others, this discourse challenges fund-raisers sense
of control, disempowering them.
Although potentially isolating, the focus on finances as part of their
occupational identities simultaneously allowed them to embody powerful
positions. Based on 10 years of experience, Chris suggested that his talent
for raising money both repels and attracts others:
Chris: If you go to a party and you say what you do . . . and you say youre a
professional fund-raiser, everybody in the room moves away from you . . .
and then throughout the evening people begin to come back to see you indi-
vidually because almost everybody you meet is involved in some organiza-
tion that has a need to raise money, and people begin to think that maybe you
have something to offer that would help with what their main project is.
Interviewer: Well what do you do when those people start returning and start
sidling up to you one by one?
Chris: I dominate the conversation by sharing all that I know about fund-raising.. . . [laughs] I love to talk about it.
Chris realized that the financial aspects of his occupation simultaneously
repel and compel others and that he has little control over the material reality
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and societal discourses behind this movement. Yet he reclaims a sense of
empowerment for at least a moment by shifting into a more positive fram-
ing of himself as a sharer and teacher. Carols interview also revealed waysin which financial framing both ostracized and empowered her, noting that
her grandmother sees her as a glorified beggar but also that when we
announce our totals [at administrative meetings], we get clapping, cheering
and standing ovations. She is disempowered by her perceived inability to
end the beggar image but also sees that her occupation can get her the
recognition that she presumably desires from the university.
Thus, financial framing stands out as a tension-filled framing of their
occupational identities that is (dis)empowering in participants discourses.Although much of what follows demonstrates ways in which fund-raisers
attempt to move beyond the negative begging discourse associated with ask-
ing for money, the fund-raisers do not reject financial framing of their occu-
pational identities entirely. Indeed, the material reality of their work makes
denial of this frame implausible. Instead, they discursively layer and hold it
in tension with other framings, finding moments of emancipation from stig-
matizing discourses that create the need for still other paths.
Relational Framing
Relational framing offers a path to micro emancipation that creates new
tensions for fund-raisers as simultaneously (dis)empowered. This framing
at first suggests empowering reciprocal relations among fund-raisers and
others, and fund-raisers articulated relationship building as their favorite
thing about fund-raising, a source of positive self-image and a way to man-
age other negative framings. For example, Karen, who had worked as a
foundations giving officer for nearly 4 years, talked about how she turns to
relationships to manage the tensions associated with her financial role as a
fund-raiser:
And a lot of people even, I feel really bad sometimes when Ive hit em up
for things, when I come in just to shop in their stores, I think they like, worry,
like, Is she going to ask me for something today?
When I asked how she handled that suspicion, she said, Im like, Im onlyhere to shop today, indicating that at first she remains within the financial
frame with them and denies that she will ask for money. However, she then
turned to the relational frame:
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I think they wonder what Im up to when I come in to shop. . . . But they know
me, we have that that type of relationship and you, and you build that, you build
that. People build that being comfortable and confidence in you to know if you,if youre in there for an ethical purpose and, and they like you and they like your
organization. And I think thats very important, is the relationship part of it.
So she compensates for and manages her perception of peoples suspicion
that she wants money through a personal relationship that she builds with
the shop owners. In this way she is trying to use relational framing to free
herself from a perceived undesirable image associated with her occupation.
Through relational framing, fund-raisers can be understood as ethical and
equal to those with whom they interact, enjoying higher levels of power,
respect, and reputation.
However, it is key to note that participants were articulating both fram-
ings rather than choosing one over the other. For example, Roger, a major
gifts officer with 8 years of experience, described what he does: I think
building relationships, umm, and translating those relationships into sup-
port for the, for the university is really, thats really the crux of the matter.
Similarly, Alan is a fund-raiser with 8 years of experience and a masters
degree in communication who consistently layered financial and relationalframes during his interview:
Alan: I dont like friend-raising. I think youre just, youre fund-raising. I dont
think you need to shy away from that were fund-raisers.
Interviewer: So let me reflect back. Is this kind of the way youre seeing it, that
you dont really view it as friend-raising, because making friends isnt the
goal, its fund-raising, because making funds is the goal?
Alan: No, because I disagree with both of those points. I dont think its about
making friends. I think what we do in educational fund-raising is build rela-
tionships with people . . . and bring them closer to the university . . . and
then hopefully, somewhere down the road, were going to ask them for a gift.
Thus, he resisted the interviewers attempts to categorize his occupational
identity in one frame. For him, fund-raising is not about either asking for
money or altruistically making friends; financial and relational frames must
be held in tension to fully understand how he views his work. The material
reality is certainly a factor. There is also a current of professionalism in suchstances in which the fund-raisers implied that friendships are distinct from
professional relationships. Furthermore, even though Roger and Alan
brought up the financial aspect and frame, they both articulated the financial
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goal in relational and mission-based terms such as asking for support
instead of asking for money.
Turning attention to the disempowering potential of this frame, Kelly, anannual giving fund-raiser for 5 years, foregrounds the relational aspects of
fund-raising when explaining to a stranger what she does. She tells them,
I build relationships with people and then ask them for money. She
laughed and continued, People look at you, and theyre like, Okay, so are
you a hooker? From that conversational opening she would describe her
work. Kelly uses the frame to challenge peoples assumptions about her
occupational identity, but her approach highlights new tensions. Although
the beggar suffers from potential physical (filth) and social (servile rela-tionship to others) taints, a hooker also faces a moral taint stemming from
the occupations doubtful virtue (Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999). The strategic
use of relationships as a means to financial ends can call forth public dis-
comfort with combinations of friendship and money. Talking about build-
ing relationships as a necessary step or means of raising money challenges
any assumptions that fund-raisers are building altruistic friendships.
Overall, the addition of relational framing helps fund-raisers extricate
themselves from the disempowering begging discourse by generating afocus on respectful, honest, and reciprocal relations with others. Talking
about relationships with human beings avoids public discomfort with talk-
ing about money and connotes a sense of empowerment for fund-raisers as
those who are orchestrating and building the relationships but also leads to
questions about the ethics of their actions. Some participants seemed aware
that blending financial and relational framing, while freeing them from some
issues, creates new identity issues. Specifically, this blending can result in
even greater public mistrust of fund-raisers as people who subvert and bend
relationships to the strategic end goal of obtaining money. Strategic rather
than altruistic relations may conflict with public assumptions about philan-
thropy. Also, if they are building relationships with donors, then leaving the
organization could destroy the relationship, making it harder to justify
changing jobs. Many participants attempt to distinguish these relationships
from friendship as a way to manage these tensions. Thus, although relational
framing helps manage problems stemming from financial framing, it also
creates new tensions and issues for fund-raisers.
Educational Framing
Third, educational framing of fund-raising encompasses additional
power-laden tensions for fund-raisers, ranging from admitting that they
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knew little about their jobs when they started and are still learning the work
more than 10 years later to describing themselves as knowledgeable
teachers of publics who are undereducated about fund-raising and fund-raisers. Although fund-raisers constantly persuade others to alter and form
perceptions of their work and identities, this framing addresses how they
frame their occupational identities in educational terms, that is, how they
describe themselves particularly as both students and teachers, interacting
with societal discourses about education and philanthropy as still another
way of nuancing understandings of their occupation.
Almost all the fund-raisers mentioned that they lacked any knowledge
about their occupation as they started their first fund-raising job (We knewnothing), thus distancing themselves from the professionalism and empow-
erment traditionally associated with education and knowledge in societal
discourses. For example, Kelly shared a very intimidating initial experi-
ence with her student workers that left her disempowered: It was very
nerve-racking at first to come in knowing that [my student workers] had that
expertise, and I didnt. Gary talked candidly about how he faced the initial
stumbling blocks of really knowing the, the vernacular and um, a lot of
methodology, just completely ignorant about that so yes, you know, youhave to spend some time reading, researching what works, what methodolo-
gies do people use. They typically learned on the job, matching Duronio
and Tempels (1997) findings a decade earlier. Fund-raisers spoke freely and
frequently about their initial lack of understanding of fund-raising.
Most of them turned this lack of knowledge into a discussion of how their
occupation required a willingness to constantly learn. Even fund-raisers with
18 years of experience spoke about the need to be students of fund-raising,
continuously learning skills and the needs of their organizations and
donors. Karen noted, Becoming a good, a good fund-raiser is that personal
commitment to always grow and learn what is going on in the industry of
fund-raising. This defining of their work as constantly being students
could both excite and worry fund-raisers. Janet noted, Ive been at [this
school] for 16 years, and I still dont have my arms fully around it. Because
its constantly evolving, constantly changing, and thats the beauty of an
educational institution. Several fund-raisers shared Janets excitement
about constantly learning. On the other hand, Gary described the need to
always learn new techniques as the hardest part of his job: The biggesthurdle is staying current with the methodologies and being able to, the
hardest thing for me is to be able to adapt myself. His position matches
Gregorys (2001) findings of corporate workers feeling pressured by real-
izations that they were facing a need to constantly learn, but more of the
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fund-raisers shared Janets enthusiasm. Fund-raisers perceive themselves as
people who really want to and/or have to learn constantly. As perpetual
students, they can see themselves as less competent, powerful, and empow-ered than other professionals (or even students), yet the constant learning
gives them a sense of pride in their work, suggests their job is not easy, and
furthermore can reduce others expectations of their outputs.
Even as they described themselves as students, they also described
themselves as teachers of others who lacked knowledge of fund-raising and
philanthropy. By reframing others negative perceptions as uninformed or
incorrect, fund-raisers position themselves and their work positively. Even
Erin, with only 6 months of experience, was already using this framing:
I think a lot of people have misconceptions. Um, they think I think a lot of
time theyre unsure about exactly what the money is being raised for and
what it goes to support. Um, I think thats the biggest thing is just they dont
really know what goes into it.
They often shared stories of educating their administrations and faculties
about realistic goals for fund-raisers. Chris laughingly offered an example
of when his trustees wanted him to raise $3 million in 60 dayssomethingthat had never been done on the campus without someone dying: So I had
to explain to them that that would not be a realistic goal. When understood
as teachers, empowered dispensers of knowledge, fund-raisers share an
admired commonality with others in the higher education system in which
they work.
Fund-raisers also manage and create tensions by suggesting that their
job is to educate people about philanthropy in general. Moving fluidly from
student to teacher, Sarah, who had been in fund-raising for 14 years, talkedabout realizing her work could involve being a teacher: That was a real
learning lesson for me, and so what, what Ive taken as a challenge is to
help educate my alums um. Just about giving. Not only if its for me but for
other institutions. She concluded, I see our role here is [to be] educators
about the whole, about the whole philanthropic process. This discursive
move to being philanthropy teachers can assist fund-raisers in managing
ideas that it is unethical for them to switch positions because a switch in
institutions still offers the chance to educate people about philanthropy. Incontrast, relational framing would make justifying a move more compli-
cated because the fund-raiser might be damaging these relationships.
Particularly in todays workforce and in the midst of beliefs that the indi-
vidual is responsible for the success of his or her career, a perception that
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274 Management Communication Quarterly
an individual is morally and materially able to switch jobs is important and
empowering.
Although a few fund-raisers choose not to engage in teaching variouspublics about fund-raising, philanthropy, and fund-raisers, they often
encounter moments that contain the opportunity. Taking advantage of the
opportunity represents an additional responsibility but also a chance for
emancipation from the limits and tensions of other frames that may
improve their self-perception, their reputations, and thus their occupational
identities.
Mission Framing
Fourth, fund-raisers often negotiated identity tensions by speaking of
their occupation as mission oriented. As Janet noted, Mission is every-
thing to us. This mission framing offers a particularly rich micro-
emancipation opportunity for fund-raisers needing to transcend other
oppressive frames and understandings of their occupation. Mission framing
empowers fund-raisers as pursuing a higher cause, trumping concerns
about fund-raisers as beggars or false friends, yet the framing suggests sub-servience to these missions and therefore limits individual choices to move
up a career ladder in a new place as promoted by personal branding and
professional discourses.
Indeed, within mission framing, the fund-raisers spoke of how identify-
ing with the missions of their institutions and philanthropy could assist
them. Karen described how important it is for the fund-raiser to support a
schools mission and how that drives others to give. Focus on mission
makes her job easier and thus gives her some control over her success:
I mean I think, if you really support the mission of your organization and you
get excited about a program thats being developed and you as an individual can
support it and buy into it, I think, I think thats really the key to it. And . . .
your excitement and enthusiasm can drive others, donors and other individu-
als to really buy into your mission and buy into your organization. I mean and
cause theres, sometimes theres projects that Im asked to work on where
its very difficult for me to do research or proposals on cause I just cant get
excited on or see where at first its going to help us, but eventually when I do,when the light clicks I guess, um, I can really get into it.
Yet identifying with the mission can control fund-raisers. Peter spoke of
telling a friend:
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I said, You know, Nancy, I dont return [headhunter] calls because I feel like
Id almost be, uh, if I return the call I would not be being loyal to [the uni-
versity] if I return the call. And she said, Peter, thats so stupid! They just,theyre trying to network.
Peter so strongly identifies with his organization and its mission that he was
not even willing to talk with anyone about other jobs or making more
money. Gary spoke about how he came to identify with the mission of his
current organization, (making education possible) from first questioning
what the slogan meant to becoming so involved that he really believed that
meant something. In contrast, he had left another organization because he
thought it was failing to meet its mission: It became very difficult for me to
solicit funds for an organization that was not necessarily meeting its mission,
was not living up to its mission. And I, you just lose your spirit for doing it.
So identifying with an organizations mission may simultaneously limit
career options and make being a fund-raiser easier. Thus, fund-raisers man-
age tensions between believing in and selling their organizations mission
and their own needs for career advancement.
As in educational framing, they sometimes described prioritizing a
broader philanthropic mission, often associated with donor and publicinterests, over what they may see as the short-term mission of their organi-
zations. Gary discussed the importance of this broader mission:
I dont think you can be a long term successful fund-raiser if you really dont
believe in your heart with the altruism of, of philanthropy and fund-raising.
. . . I think if youre just opportunistic and, um, and dont have that philo-
sophic base, I think its real hard.
As in the educating frame, connecting with philanthropy generates
empowering choices for the fund-raiser and can build a positive sense of
occupational identity among fund-raisers. Also, identifying with a phil-
anthropic mission over an organizational one can justify the choice to
change institutions. Yet identification with the mission of the organization
can limit a fund-raisers perception of his or her career options. Indeed,
Garys juxtaposition of altruism and opportunism illustrates a conflict
fund-raisers face between a selflessness associated with a philanthropic
mission and the self-interest and self-promotion often expected of todays
professional. Their descriptions also suggest that fund-raisers must
identify with missions.
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Coordination Framing
Fifth, understandings of fund-raisers as coordinators, conduits, andbackstage participants in a drama (see Goffman, 1959) suggest contradic-
tory empowerment moments for fund-raisers. Some fund-raisers took pride
in their abilities to coordinate, whereas others lamented that coordinating,
although important, was the worst part of the job. Janet provided an
example of coordination framing as a source of pride and one that blends
back into mission framing: Its the fine art of connecting people and this
institution and I firmly believe in our mission. . . . Im proud to be a fund-
raiser. She later said, We are the thin copper wire that conducts electric-
ity between the two and we conduct it back and forth. So, thats our, thats
our role . . . and passing the excitement from one to the other as well.
Peter similarly argued, You are a conduit for support that people want to
give anyway. Sarah went further, describing herself as merely grease on
the conduit of fund-raising for her school: Were just the, were a techni-
cian. Its the faculty, um, that are, and the students that are the real conduits
for um, all of our interactions.
All of these descriptions place fund-raisers in an interesting position
power-wise. On one hand, a conduit is a tool, something to be used and eas-ily replaced without concern for who or what the conduit is, resembling
dehumanizing classical management assumptions about workers. Such a
position sounds like it disempowers fund-raisers. However, at the same
time, replaceability can be freeing to fund-raisers, making it easier for them
to move on to other situations. They are not central to the process; funds can
be raised by others without this particular fund-raiser being present. For
example, Carol expressed dislike for the background and coordinating
aspects of her work with a large donation for her school:
[The donation] was a really big deal. But I was, um, the dean got to make the
ask, and he got to tell everybody about it, and he got to do everything, and all
I did was sort of file the paperwork and pat people on the back behind the
scenes . . . and it was very like, oh, wow we raised all this money and what
a let down that I really didnt get to do it.
However, she also used this framing to justify switching institutions every
2 or 3 years:
Were building the relationship with the institution, and, um, presidents stay
at universities for you know a decade. Deans tend to stay quite, quite a long
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time and, um, those are the people who are setting the vision and the direc-
tion and all were doing is communicating that with them, being a liaison,
getting their questions answered and getting them introduced to people, so. Idont think that, um, peoples gifts are cut short when the right fund-raiser
doesnt answer the phone.
Thus, coordination framing minimizes the fund-raisers importance as indi-
viduals, suggesting they have little control regarding their fund-raising suc-
cess; yet that lack of control is simultaneously an opportunity for micro
emancipation from discourses that attempt to tie fund-raisers to remaining
at one institution for their whole career as their only ethical option.
Magical Framing
Finally, magical framing generates contradictory empowerment oppor-
tunities and tensions for fund-raisers. Several fund-raisers described what
they do as akin to the work of a magician. Magical framing offers a sense
of power and even joy to fund-raisers as magicians and wish granters who
fulfill dreams. Roger spoke of his
bag of tricks I take with me when I travel to see people, but I dont always
show the entire hand because I want to be able to continue that, I want to have
something else to do with that person later on.
Carol said,
After a few years you . . . you dont have any new tricks in your bag that
this organization hasnt seen. Youve implemented them all. And youve
impressed everybody youre going to impress and its only downhill from
there. And if you havent then, you, theyre probably going to fire you any-
way, you might as well get out before it happens.
Roger and Carol referred to hiding part of a hand and having a bag of
tricks for strategically handling interactions with donors. Neither person
explicitly addressed the manipulative nature of this exchange, and through
a magicians metaphor they do not have to do so. The magician is supposed
to have tricks up the sleeve, and the audience knows and is a willing par-ticipant in the deception. The metaphor of a magician obscures any harm-
ful effects of pulling fund-raising tricks out of a bag and then
disappearing. Of course an ethical consideration for fund-raisers is whether
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or not their audiences see themselves as willing participants who accept
that fund-raisers are performing magic tricks. Differing perceptions on this
point could explain some public trust issues with fund-raisers, harming theoccupations identity in the long run.
However, because the magician is a professional who is supposed to
quickly move on to the next gig, this magical framing offers fund-raisers
another path of emancipation from discourses that attempt to keep the fund-
raiser from switching positions and institutions. Yet magical framing also
fosters expectations that can create enormous pressure on fund-raisers to
perform and to deliver miraculous, and maybe unrealistic, results. Perhaps
because of this possibility, fund-raisers seemed to employ this frame onlyin brief moments and resisted its use at times by publics, faculty, and
administrations. Carol noted,
I dont think its ever a good idea for people to say, Oh I have this idea, but
lets ask the fund-raisers if they can get it funded, because we dont have
crystal balls. . . . They know so much more about their project than we do.
Overall, this way of framing is not used as frequently and prominently as
many of the other frames. It has distinctive characteristics, placing fund-
raisers in a position of privilege and apparent control over what happens but
with the associated risks of seeming to have easy jobs and to be manipu-
lative, suspicious, and untrustworthy.
Layering Fund-Raising Framing
The second research question asked how these negotiations demonstrate
opportunities for (dis)empowerment and particularly paths of micro eman-cipation. The findings above demonstrate the tendency of fund-raisers to
discursively blend, move among, and layer multiple ways of framing their
work and identities. No one frame generated empowerment as a static and
secure outcome for fund-raisers. In fact, it became apparent that fund-
raisers who primarily articulated only one frame were also the fund-raisers
who more strongly expressed difficulties in negotiating, embodying, and
presenting a positive occupational identity. For example, Kate, who
expressed discomfort with her job throughout the interview, overwhelm-ingly articulated her work through financial framing, at one point explicitly
rejecting both coordinating and relational framing, noting that if
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the assistant director of alumni relations [and I] walk into a room [of alums]
I feel like they look at me completely different from her. They see her as a
friend, as a, you know, liaison. They see me as being . . . there because Iwant something.
Kate had no perception that others see her as a coordinator or relationship
builder, and though she wanted to see her work as both she struggled to do
so. Similarly, Gary indicated that when faced with opportunities to educate
others about fund-raising or philanthropy, he did not engage: I dont really
have much occasion to. Thus, he had fewer discursive resources for man-
aging his occupational identity.
In contrast, fund-raisers willingness and ability to move among and
layer multiple framings of their occupations offered the greatest potential
for moments of micro emancipation. For example, Janet, who seemed very
comfortable with and enthusiastic about being a fund-raiser, articulated all
six framings in one 41-minute interview, often in the same statement. By
constantly discursively pursuing opportunities for empowerment through
each framing, fund-raisers are achieving in-the-moment emancipation from
particular discourses, moving on to the next framing when a new societal
or material influence challenges that sense of self and control.
Discussion
My central goal here has been to understand how individuals in a grow-
ing and sometimes stigmatized job manage the tensions associated with their
occupational identities. Past research has theorized about the fragmented
and shifting character of identities but has thus far provided little empirical
evidence of how individuals manage the potential tensions and opportunities
for (dis)empowerment and micro emancipation associated with crystallized
identities. As an element of identity that is growing in importance for
employees, managers, and organizations, occupational identities need to be
researched to enhance understanding of individuals occupation choices and
the identity difficulties associated with those occupations. Specifically, the
findings reveal six major modes of framing (financial, relational, educa-
tional, mission, coordination, and magical framing) on which fund-raisersdiscursively rely and often simultaneously accommodate and resist as they
attempt to make meaning of their work and occupation amidst competing
societal discourses and material realities. The findings also suggest that the
constant (dis)empowering tensions present in each individual framing mean
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280 Management Communication Quarterly
that emancipation and positive occupational identities reside not in the
selection and espousal of any one frame and thus the removal of tensions
but rather in the constant movement and maintenance of tensions among thevarious ways of framing. In essence, the different framings serve as correc-
tives to each other and their associated discourses. The movement among
the framings is a path to micro emancipation.
These findings have several theoretical implications. First, the project
offers insight into the interactions of material and discursive reality in iden-
tity negotiation. As such, this project recognizes a multidimensional, inter-
active, and dynamic relationship among discourse and materiality that is
often lacking in communicative research (Cheney & Ashcraft, 2007,p. 157). The material reality of the work of fund-raising is that successful
fund-raisers generate financial donations to their organizations. And this
reality is a key factor in the discursive constructions of the occupational
identity of fund-raisers. Specifically, although the financial framing that
stems from this reality is one that raises many stigmatized and disempower-
ing reputation issues for fund-raisers, its material centrality to their work
inhibits them from rejecting the frame outright in discussions of their occu-
pational identities. Instead, fund-raisers frequently, actively, and discursivelyseek to supplement or correct financial framing and the disempowering
aspects of a discourse of money with one or more of the other five frames.
Future research should consider occupations in which the material reality of
the work generates relatively few reputational issues to compare the amount
of shifting that occurs in these less materially challenging occupations.
Along the lines of shifting framings, the findings also answer calls to
investigate the tensions among and intersections of identity regulation
(image discourse) and identity work (role communication) (Alvesson &
Willmott, 2002; Ashcraft, 2007) and particularly to research the influence
of nonorganizational discourses in this process (Kuhn, 2006). The disem-
powering tensions associated with societal and historical discourses (iden-
tity regulation) serve as impetuses for shifting and layering additional
framings of ones identity (identity work). All of the framings provide
opportunities for fund-raisers to (re)shape the potentially disempowering
historical, socioeconomic, and professional discourses surrounding fund-
raising in a given moment. As such, the findings also provide empirical evi-
dence that supports poststructuralist theorizing that individuals identityconstructions are complex and constantly shifting (e.g., Ashcraft &
Mumby, 2004), yet they offer a sense of explanation that challenges sug-
gestions that these identity negotiations are lacking in coherence. The
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coherence is found in how each framing of occupational identity is associated
with material reality and historical-societal discourses. The materiality and
discourses (forces of identity regulation) and the responses to them (identitywork) are the cohesive threads amidst identity negotiations. Fund-raisers
articulate different framings and combinations to manage the reputational
and power tensions tied to each discourse.
Therefore, this project also helps answer calls for understanding pro-
ductive and enabling ways of living with tension, in this case in the realm
of occupational identities (Ashcraft & Trethewey, 2004, p. 178; also see
Pepper & Larson, 2006). The six ways of framing generate and are gener-
ated by identity tensions. By flirting with various ways of describing theirwork (Eisenberg, 1998) and in fact discursively creating new tensions (e.g.,
between raising money and building relationships), fund-raisers seem
better able to understand and negotiate their identities. The fund-raisers
manage the tensions by purposefully combining and layering them, avoid-
ing eitheror choices. This holistic picture is overlooked if one assumes that
tensions should be minimized, but it readily becomes apparent through a
poststructuralist lens and can contribute to research on identity and career
negotiation. As fund-raisers encounter and respond to discourses by shift-ing framings, they influence reputations and meanings and constantly
(re)create what it means to be a fund-raiser.
One particular discourse the fund-raisers encountered and managed that
transcends the organizational boundaries Kuhn (2006) discussed is the dis-
course of professionalism. Professionalism can be invoked to both suppress
and elevate individuals (Cheney & Ashcraft, 2007) and thus contributes to
the (dis)empowerment of workers. As they frame their work, fund-raisers
challenge and struggle with the appropriateness of embodying traditional
understandings of what it means to be a professional. The results show
fund-raisers encountering impressions that it is not okay for them to seek
the same sort of personal advancement that is expected in dominant (for-
profit) conceptualizations of professionalism (see Ashcraft & Allen, 2003).
Thus, professionalization in the nonprofit sector may create a unique
tension between an (accepted professional and for-profit) interest in
improving salaries and status through job movement and a nonprofit
sectorbased belief that philanthropic work means privileging concern for
others and the cause over concern for self. This tension is likely to extendbeyond fund-raisers to other paid work in the nonprofit sector. Elsewhere,
scholars have considered race, nationality, class, and gender biases of profes-
sional norms (see Cheney & Ashcraft, 2007). To this list, I add sector biases
to refer to the for-profit sector bias of the discourse of professionalism. As
Meisenbach / Working With Tensions 281
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such, the discourses of professionalism and philanthropy (or the nonprofit
sector) can be at odds with one another, and these tensions warrant further
exploration.This analysis also contributes to research on dirty work and tainted occu-
pations (Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999; Ashforth, Kreiner, Clark, & Fugate,
2007; Tracy & Scott, 2006) in that the shifting and layering of various fram-
ings are ways of managing occupational taint. This project suggests that the
ability to constantly adapt to and shift among these various methods of
framing offers strong potential for successful management of power rela-
tions and identity tensions for the fund-raisers in this study. Specifically,
counter to modernist suggestions that workers should develop and maintaina stable sense of self (and thus eliminate tensions), fund-raisers who
invoked and maintained multiple and layered framings often had many
years of experience (e.g., Alan, 8 years; Carol, 14 years; Janet, 18 years;
and Sarah, 14 years). They spoke of their occupational identities with great
enthusiasm, whereas fund-raisers with less experience who articulated less
enjoyment and more difficulties in managing a positive identity had trouble
with or even resisted the applicability of certain framings (e.g., Gary, 3
years; Kate, 4.5 years). In other words, multiple framings of their occupa-tional identities assist fund-raisers in the management of identity tensions,
including moments of occupational taint.
Finally, this analysis addresses opportunities for micro emancipation
and (dis)empowerment in identity negotiation. The findings reveal the
dialectical presence of empowerment and disempowerment in all of the
framings and related discourses. Power is not viewed here as a repressive
force in which spaces of resistance have broken free of power. No one fram-
ing places fund-raisers in a stable empowered position. Instead, language
and knowledge are inherently tied to power, such that moments of control
and resistance are about dynamic struggles with power relations (Ashcraft
& Mumby, 2004). As the fund-raisers might encounter an undesirable sense
of self or control associated with one framing, they often discursively
focused attention on a different framing, ideally an empowering aspect of
that other framing. This is the kind of discursive micro emancipatory move
that Alvesson and Willmott (1996, 2002) discussed. Yet these moves do not
liberate the individual from oppression and control; rather, they invite new
discourses and their implications into the identity-negotiation process. Theresults demonstrate that even as a framing empowers, it can also disem-
power, requiring further discursive moves to address new issues. Thus, this
study supports Alvesson and Willmotts (1996) claim that such moves are
temporary moves away from oppression rather than purposeful moves
282 Management Communication Quarterly
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toward a static locus of emancipation. This study reveals that emancipation
is a temporary status constantly pursued and managed through the mainte-
nance of identity tensions.
Practical Implications and Applications
On a pragmatic level, these findings suggest some important applica-
tions for fund-raisers specifically as well as for individuals in a broader
range of emerging, growing, evolving, and/or stigmatized careers. One
overarching conclusion about fund-raiser identity is that the material real-ity of raising money affects the management of their occupational identi-
ties. For example, if fund-raisers talk about what they do only as building
personal relationships and coordinating internal and external audiences, it
would be difficult to understand it as inherently fund-raising. In contrast,
someone who asks one person for money one time is considered by many
to be a fund-raiser. The findings have demonstrated how moving among
and combining different framings of their work, including the materially
necessitated financial framing, can assist them in managing tensions asso-ciated with different aspects of their occupational identities. Basically, the
goal of this approach is to make someone who asks one person for money
not meet the sufficiency definition of being a fund-raiser. Work to encour-
age and develop the use of multiple framings held in tension may assist
fund-raisers and their organizations in recruiting and retaining successful
fund-raisers.
Second, this project offers an opportunity to realize Tracy and
Tretheweys (2005) call for scholars to play a key role in helping translate
a poststructuralist-inspired understanding of identity to an audience of
laypeople . . . accustomed to striving for a stable self (p. 185). In other
words, I argue that just as researchers have benefitted from understanding
identities as transient constructions, so can the fund-raisers and other work-
ers who are embodying these occupational identities. Because this data-
driven study challenges public assumptions that a successful identity is
unchanging, explicit training and teaching of fund-raisers and others about
this alternative conception of self and multiple ways of framing are advis-
able. In terms of consequences, this study suggests making fund-raisersaware that articulating and negotiating a variety of fund-raising frames can
discursively create moments of positive and empowered identities.
However, fund-raisers should also recognize that all frames empower and
disempower.
Meisenbach / Working With Tensions 283
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Beyond fund-raisers, this poststructuralist understanding of negotiating
occupational identity through multiple framings can be helpful to individu-
als in other occupations, particularly those working in emerging or stigma-tized occupations. Being new and/or ostracized is difficult, so in contrast to
everyday assumptions about finding and maintaining a fixed, real self,
consciously creating multiple ways of framing an occupation can yield a
variety of options for interacting with and managing discursive and mater-
ial challenges to occupational identities.
In conclusion, this project continues the work of conceptualizing and
understanding occupational identity negotiation. These identities are not
constructed and then left alone to fend for themselves. They are constantlyand actively challenged, developed, expanded, and contracted in every
power-laden moment of experience. Therefore, they can be affected both
positively and negatively through every interaction, every micro practice.
Research should ascertain the extent to which this constant movement and
maintenance of discursive and material tensions carries across other occu-
pations, including a diverse range of emerging or established and admired
or abhorred occupations. Furthermore, the discoveries about how tensions
are managed and how empowerment and emancipation are sought throughoccupational framing have implications beyond the occupational realm.
This same process may well be at work in the management of personal and
other social identities including organizational, gendered, and classed iden-
tities. The fragmentation seen here just among occupational framings is
likely to be even more complicated when, for example, researchers explore
tensions generated between personal and occupational identities. This
knowledge and perspective offer scholars, fund-raisers, and others encour-
agement and understanding of how to consciously negotiate and understand
identities as tension-filled experiences co-constructed in relation to mater-
ial reality and various discourses.
Note
1. Group identity and social identity are terms stemming from social identity theory, which
originated in social psychology research and distinguishes between personal and social or
group identities (Tajfel & Turner, 1979).
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