Researcher Kathryn Ostermeier, a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Business' Department of Management, is studying how different identities at work or at home impact people on the job. For example, an individual who has to balance a role as a health care provider, where the focus is on patient care, with a role as a hospital employee, which has an additional focus on profitability, may feel conflicted regarding the two roles.

In her research, A Foot in Two Worlds: Exploring Organizational and Professional Dual Identification, Ostermeier found that multiple identities can hurt work performance if the individual hasn't reconciled the identities.