“I Am My Body”. Physical Selves of Police Officers in a Changing Institution

• Author: David Courpasson,Vanessa Monties
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12221
• Date: 01 January 2017
• Published date: 01 January 2017

“I Am My Body”. Physical Selves of Police Officers in

a Changing Institution

David Courpasson and Vanessa Monties

EMLYON Business School, France and Cardiff University, UK; INSEEC Business School

ABSTRACT Most studies on identity work have overlooked the corporeal quality of

occupational life. Despite calls to attempt such engagement, little is known about the role of

the body in occupations for which corporeal elements are central in the affirmation of

identity. This study aims to answer such calls by providing a detailed ethnography of police

work. Focusing on four bodily practices, we demonstrate how fitness, intimidation, cleanliness,

and toughness are central elements to the officers’ construction of self. We thereby highlight

the notion of physical selfhood as a way to understand the body/identity nexus among police

officers and their capacity to resist new work requirements. We view bodies through a lens of

resistance, rather than docility and compliance as much previous research has done. We aim

to contribute to scholarship on identity work by portraying the politicization of bodies as a

powerful component, thereby helping professionals to deflect some important institutional

pressures affecting their work.

Keywords: bodily practices, body, identity work, physical selfhood, police work, resistance

INTRODUCTION

It is well established that individuals aim to achieve a balance between the ‘self’ and the

roles that are relevant to them in a given social and organizational milieu (Kreiner

et al., 2006; Patriotta and Spedale, 2009). Previous research has depicted this identity

work as maneuvering in relation to available discourses to revise or maintain self-

narratives (Watson, 2008). Other studies have portrayed it as a process used by individu-

als to create coherent narratives about who they are within constraining environments

(Curchod et al., 2014); when their identity is threatened (Brown and Coupland, 2015;

Petriglieri, 2011); or as a coping method to compensate for the stigma attached to their

Address for reprints: David Courpasson, Emlyon Business School, 23 Avenue Guy de Collongue, 69130

Ecully, France (courpasson@em-lyon.com).

[Correction added on 8 September 2016, after first online publication: author affiliations have been

corrected.]

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C2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies

Journal of Management Studies 54:1 January 2017

doi: 10.1111/joms.12221

work (Ashforth and Kreiner, 1999; Bittner, 1970; Dick, 2008; Hugues, 1951; Tracy and

Scott, 2006).

In this paper, we draw on this literature to address the identity work done by police offi-

cers in relation to changing occupational requirements. We define identity work as the pro-

cess through which they define themselves both via discursive (what they say about what

they do) and practical means (what they do to demonstrate the legitimacy of their current

knowledge): identity work is accomplished through talks about concrete doings. This defini-

tion is particularly relevant in changing workplaces, where workers are confronted to alter-

native occupational demands that modify the foundations of longstanding occupational

identities and associated work practices. In these contexts, occupational members defend

their identities through concrete demonstrations of their particular qualities and talks about

the necessity of these qualities. In our study, police officers develop narratives about what

they accomplish with their bodies to resist new occupational demands.

Our point of departure is that the influence of bodily practices on the construction of

occupational identities has been so far neglected in identity work research (Brown and

Coupland, 2015). This is problematic because many occupations are impacted by how

organizations consider their workers’ bodies. For example, studies on occupations have

investigated the link between the body and identities in relation to investment bankers

(Michel, 2012); elite rugby players (Brown and Coupland, 2015); soldiers (Thornborrow

and Brown, 2009); female casino workers (Jones and Chandler, 2007); restaurant workers

(Erickson, 2004); and miners (Johnston and McIvor, 2004). Organizational research has

also highlighted that workers’ bodily efforts can be associated with identity construction

and possible resistance (Michel, 2012). However, this research has often utilized a realist

‘physiological lens’ (Heaphy, 2007; Heaphy and Dutton, 2008) that treats the body as a

mere biological object, such as an implicit aspect of organizational design (Taylor, 1911)

or an explicit issue of health (Cooper et al., 2001). From this perspective, working bodies

are incorporated into organizational life to produce and reproduce a compliant worker

(Valentine, 2002). Bodies are therefore mostly theorized as ‘docile’ and easily governed

elements of the workplace (Brown and Coupland, 2015; Foucault, 1979).

This paper takes a different approach by treating the body as a resource for identity

work: we argue that bodies are political objects that workers use over time to strengthen

an occupational identity that helps them to resist institutional and organizational expect-

ations. Specifically, we ask: how does identity work achieved through bodily practices

enable occupational members to deflect pressures resulting from changes in occupa-

tional tasks? This is important, because understanding how employees use and discuss

bodies in the workplace provides insight into how such bodies become resources for

identity work, thus allowing individuals to cope with changing work situations.

We address this question through an ethnographic study on French police officers,

paying special attention to their use and discussion of their bodies in the context of a

perceived threat to a job practice based largely on bodily capacities. Our principal inter-

est is in how police officers talk about and enact bodily practices to create an occupa-

tional reality that frames a sense of who they are (Mumby and Clair, 1997) and better

cope with new institutional expectations regarding police work. This setting is relevant

to the focus of our study because French police officers have been confronted for some

years with competitive job practices that threaten their view of what is a ‘true cop’.

33I Am My Body

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C2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies