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While an exciting stream of research on identity construction processes in and around organizations has emerged in organizational studies, it may be time to reflect on our current progress to ensure that we are not closing off some avenues for inquiry prematurely. In reflecting upon the field, I address three questions: (a) Can we meaningfully talk about identity and process? (b) If we can meaningfully talk about identity and process, how should we talk about them? (c) If we know how to talk about identity and process, what might be missing from the conversations we are currently having? In addressing these questions, I examine the degree to which identity is amenable to process theorizing, I explore the language we use when talking about process and identity, and I inquire about the role of identity in “identity processes” and processes related to identity. With regard to the latter, I suggest that current process theorizing about organizational identity is impoverished because it rarely considers the role of the self, and I offer some ideas for theorizing about organizational self-processes.

This chapter reviews empirical evidence that reveals that the two types of passion (harmonious and obsessive) can affect cognitive functioning, with harmonious passion leading to the most adaptive outcomes and obsessive passion leading to the least adaptive ones. These findings were obtained in studies that examined a number of cognitive of processes, including attention, mindfulness, decision-making, rumination, and self-processes. Future research is needed to determine how social and personal factors may moderate these effects. Other research has also shown that passion can be accurately perceived in others, although such research is preliminary and has not focused on the distinction between harmoniously and obsessively passionate individuals.

Philip G. Zimbardo describes his most underappreciated work: a paper titled “Discontinuity Theory: Cognitive and Social Searches for Rationality and Normality—May Lead to Madness.” Published in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology in 1999, Zimbardo's research focuses on discontinuity theory and its assumptions about self-processes, cognitive searches for rationality, situationally centered social searches for normality, and the association between particular kinds of explanatory biases and specific different emerging pathologies such as phobias and paranoia. Zimbardo reflects on the reasons why his paper was an abysmal failure.