Les processus psychologiques impliqués dans l'identité professionnelle des cadres

This study aims to explore the executives' professional identity in terms of psychological processes referring to Dubar's (1992) professional identity model and ethos of work described by Mercure and Vultur (2010). The relational and biographical transactions proposed by Dubar were examined using six psychological scales (adaptability, protean career, well-being, motivation at work, organizational commitment, sense of work) from psychology of work and career guidance administered to 460 executives by means of an online questionnaire. We expected that these measures could explain the two identity transactions and allow distinguishing different types of executives. Factor analysis revealed two factors, each corresponding to a transaction. Cluster analyses update four distinct groups of executives that we compared to the six ethos of work from Mercure and Vultur. The discussion emphasizes the value our approach to improve our knowledge of professional identity and highlights the value of the results for career guidance practices and human resource management. Future research can extend this line by bridging the boundaries of the present study.