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In this paper we organize research on work-related identities into a four-perspective typology that captures different ways identities can be "positive." Each perspective on positive identity-virtue, evaluative, developmental, and structural-highlights a different source of positivity and opens new avenues for theorizing about identity construction. We use these four perspectives to develop propositions about how different forms of positive work-related identity construction can strengthen employees through building social resources.

We present a theory of how individuals compose their reflected best-self portrait, which we define as a changing self-knowledge structure about who one is at one's best. We posit that people compose their reflected best-self portrait through social experiences that draw on intrapsychic and interpersonal resources. By weaving together microlevel theories of personal change and macrolevel theories of human resource development, our theory reveals an important means by which work organizations affect people's capacity to realize their potential.Being extraordinary does not necessarily mean obtaining a position of honor or glory or even of becoming successful in other people's eyes. It means being true to self. It means pursuing our full potential (Quinn & Quinn, 2002: 35).Being extraordinary. All of us can recall our own extraordinary moments-those moments when we felt that our best-self was brought to light, affirmed by others, and put into practice in the world. These memories are seared into our minds as moments or situations in which we felt alive, true to our deepest selves, and pursuing our full potential as human beings. Over time, we collect these experiences into a portrait of who we are when we are at our personal best. Sometimes this portrait is composed gradually and without much conscious attention or selfawareness. Other times, work organizations play an active role in providing us feedback, furnishing goals, and enabling relationships with others in ways that make this portrait explicit and consciously changing over time. Whether implicit or explicit, stable or changing, this portrait serves as both an anchor and a beacon, a personal touchstone of who we are and a guide for who we can become. We call this portrait the "reflected best-self" (hereafter referred to as the RBS).We choose the word "reflected" to emphasize that this self-portrait is based on our perceptions of how others view us. Family members, friends and acquaintances, and organizations provide us with feedback about who we are, and this information is integrated into our selfconcept (Cooley, 1902;Tice & Wallace, 2003). We choose the word "best" to refer to the strengths, contributions, and enduring talents that each person brings to a situation. Taken together, this means that through interpretations of experiences and interactions in the social world, each person composes a self-portrait of his or her own strengths and contributions. We posit that the process of composing the RBS portrait creates a pathway to becoming extraordinary, in that it involves envisioning the self at one's best, and then acting on this vision to translate possibilities for the extraordinary into reality.Our purpose here is to define the RBS, describe how and when it changes, and articulate the ways in which it influences individual funcWe thank Art Brief, two anonymous reviewers, the faculty and staff at the University of Michigan Business School, Brianna Barker, Robin Ely, Monica Higgins, Joshua Margolis, Leslie Perlow, Jeffrey Polzer, Ryan Quinn, Lloyd Sand...

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Positive manager-subordinate relationships are invaluable to organizations because they enable positive employee attitudes, citizenship behaviors, task performance, and more effective organizations. Yet extant theory provides a limited perspective on the factors that create these types of relationships. We highlight the important role subordinates also play in affecting the resource pool and propose that a subordinate's multiple identities can provide him or her with access to knowledge and social capital resources that can be utilized for work-based tasks and activities. A manager and a subordinate may prefer similar or different strategies for managing the subordinate's multiple identities, however, which can affect resource utilization and the quality of the manager-subordinate relationship. Our variance model summarizes our predictions about the effect of managers' and subordinates' strategy choices on the quality of manager-subordinate relationships. In doing so we integrate three divergent relational theories (leader-member exchange theory, relational-cultural theory, and a positive organizational scholarship perspective on positive relationships at work) and offer new insights on the quality of manager-subordinate relationships. KeywordsIdentity, diversity, resources, relationships, leader-member exchange, relational cultural theory, positive organizational scholarship Disciplines Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods CommentsAt the time of publication, author Stephanie J. Creary was affiliated with Cornell University. Currently, she is a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. Antioch University E-mail: lroberts3@antioch.edu 1 We would like to thank our action editor, Christine Quinn Trank, and our three anonymous reviewers for their feedback and support. We appreciate the feedback we received from audiences at the CGO at Simmons School of Management, the GRO seminar group at Harvard Business School, the Work, Identity and Meaning group at the Boston College Carroll School of Management, the 2012 Positive Relationships at Work Microcommunity research meeting, and the 2013 Academy of Management meeting. Special thanks to Rachel Arnett, Stacy Blake-Beard, Hannah Riley Bowles, Boram Do, Jane Dutton, Robin Ely, Joyce Fletcher, Oscar Holmes IV, Tsedal Neeley, Michael Pratt, Lakshmi Ramarajan, and Andrea Tunarosa for their support. We are grateful to the GDO Division for awarding an earlier version of this paper the Division's Best Student Paper at the 2013 Academy of Management meeting. 2 OUT OF THE BOX? HOW MANAGING A SUBORDINATE'S MULTIPLE IDENTITIES AFFECTS THE QUALITY OF A MANAGER-SUBORDINATE RELATIONSHIP ABSTRACT:Positive manager-subordinate relationships are invaluable to organizations because they enable positive employee attitudes, citizenship behaviors, task performance, and more effective organizations. Yet, extant theory provides a limited perspective on the factors that create these types of relationships. In this paper, we highlight the important role that subordinates al...