Double stance discourse: Managing social and personal identity at work

Abstract

This article presents the results of a collaborative interdisciplinary multimethod research project on psychosocial risks and communication in the workplace that involved the Union of Metro Workers in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The objective of this article is twofold: on one hand, to understand an apparent contradiction in the results of the quantitative survey, which showed very high levels of stress and, at the same time, very high levels of satisfaction. To do this, we conducted a discourse analysis of in-depth interviews with subway workers. On the other hand, the results of this analysis allowed us to coin the concept of ‘double stance discourse’ as a way of describing a specific type of response that differentiates both personal and collective perspectives toward the issue of job satisfaction. We conclude that these ‘to me’ and ‘to others’ responses are a resource for individuals to reconcile, in discourse, conflictive individual and social experiences of working conditions.