Between a Scientist and a Government Employee: Analyzing the Occupational Identity of National Research Institute Researchers in Korea

ABSTRACT

This study, using the data from the questionnaire survey of researchers working for Korean national research institutes, investigates the consequences of conflicting occupational identities. Those researchers may have two different occupational identities: as a scientist and/or a civil servant. Those with a strong scientist identity support individualist values (self-development for research capabilities, pro-incentive, and information sharing) more solidly than those with a strong civil servant identity; for public-social values (altruism, trust in other organizational members, and organizational commitment), vice versa. The study casts practical implications for balanced alignment between self-recognized occupational identities and managerial strategies (incentive, performance evaluation, and training).

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational identity
• work identity
• scientist
• national research institute

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2016S1A3A2924956).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.