Dr Yingfei Heliot

Dr YingFei Héliot

Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour
+44 (0)1483 682121
49 MS 03
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Research interests

My teaching

My publications


Héliot YingFei, Gleibs I.H., Coyle A., Rousseau D., Rojon C. (2020) Religious identity in the workplace: A systematic review, research agenda, and practical implications, Human Resource Management 59 (2) pp. 153-173 Wiley

Zigan Krystin, Héliot YingFei, Le Grys Alan (2019) Analyzing leadership attributes in faith-based organizations: Idealism versus reality, Journal of Business Ethics Springer

Héliot YingFei, Mittelmeier Jenna, Rienties Bart (2019) Developing learning relationships in intercultural and multi-disciplinary environments: a mixed method investigation of management students? experiences, Studies in Higher Education pp. 1-15 Taylor & Francis (Routledge)

Rienties B, Héliot YingFei (2018) Enhancing (in)formal learning ties in interdisciplinary management courses: a quasi-experimental social network study, Studies in Higher Education 48 (3) pp. 437-451 Taylor & Francis


Eimear Nolan, Mairead Brady, Bart Rienties, YINGFEI HELIOT (2021)Once more on the rollercoaster: Loses and gains from the rapid shift to online delivery during Covid, In: Academy of Management Proceedings2021(1) Academy of Management

A global rapid shift to online delivery in higher education due to the Covid19 pandemic resulted in students and teachers pivoting into a new learning environment, in many cases overnight. Our research nested within an Irish university explores how such a rapid educational delivery shift affected both students and teachers, offering a unique dual perspective and input into the changing roles of students and teachers due to Covid19. Our research design focused on open-ended surveys of 83 M.Sc. postgraduate students and their five teachers in five modules, followed by qualitative data collected through 34 in-depth interviews. The findings illustrate a complex narrative of self-regulation and challenge for both students and teachers both needing to adjust to a new educational experience. The main findings are that there is a core challenge in the repositioning of the student and teacher roles in a new educational ecosystem which needs to be both understood and managed to gain maximum benefit from this rapid and unprecedented change.

Caroline Cintas, YingFei Heliot, Pierre-Antoine Sprimont (2020)Religious accommodation in France: decoding managers' behaviour, In: Employee Relations: The International Journal43(1)pp. 83-107 Emerald Publishing Limited

Purpose This research aims to explain, in the secular French context, the intention of managers to accommodate religious expression at work (REW) when they are not obliged to do so. This paper seeks to understand the determinants of managerial positions on REW. Building on previous studies on how organisations and managers deal with religious expression, this research seeks to extend the evidence on this important aspect of managerial behaviour in relation to accommodating REW. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) in diversity management (N = 151 French managers). This method highlights attitudinal and organisational determinants favourable to the intent to accommodate. Findings The present research provides new insight by identifying two main direct factors affecting managers' accommodation, namely, organisational flexibility (flexible hours, autonomy) and perceived consequences (advantages, disadvantages) and one indirect factor, religiosity. In line with the contradictions within diversity management, the perceived consequences are ambivalent and highly context dependent. One issue to explore is that managers seek to deal with religious expression by making it invisible. Research limitations/implications In the French context, the explanatory social norm might not be “religiosity” but rather “perceived secularity”. The authors recommend that future studies use qualitative methods with interviews and photo elicitation to extend this first study. Indeed, the complexity of the managerial position requires an in-depth understanding of managers' attitudes and behaviours with regard to religion. How do managers apply a common ground strategy and create unity despite differences? Is the desire to make arrangements invisible with a view to inclusive neutrality specific to France, or can it be generalised to managers in other countries? Does the intention to accommodate not essentially depend on the manager-employee relationship dynamic? This research raises questions for scholars about the relationship with the other and ethical managerial conduct. Practical implications France is a secular country where a debate is emerging on cases of discrimination due to REW. The results contribute to approaches to drafting company guidelines for managers and may help organisations anticipate the risks associated with REW. The discussion of the results reveals the importance of social norms in the sense of hypernorms (religiosity) and undoubtedly of secularism, nondiscrimination and gender equality in the decision-making process on accommodation. These inclusive norms should therefore be handled with care in the various guidelines that have been developed. Originality/value REW is increasing but is a neglected dimension of diversity management. This study helps explore this new field by promoting an understanding of managers' intention to accommodate in a specific secular context.

K Zigan, YingFei Heliot, Alan Le Grys (2018)An exploration of the leader-follower dyad using implicit theory, In: 3rd Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Leadership; Proceedings

In this research, we adopt a follower-centered leadership approach, which aims at integrating both implicit leadership theories (ILTs) and implicit followership theories (IFTs). While ILTs investigate followers' subjective views of leaders; IFTs focus on the views of followers (e.g., Sy, 2010). We are interested in the joint influence of ILT and IFT fit on the leader–follower dyad. We further aim to explore the fit between the followers’ and leaders’ view on ideal leadership and followership respectively. We also compare the fit between actual leaders and followers from a follower’s perspective and potential consequences on the effectiveness of the leader- follower dyadic relationship.

Lara Carminati, YingFei Heliot (2018)Doctors’ Professional and Religious Identity Conflict: Micro and Macro Dynamics in End-of-Life Circumstances, In: British Academy of Management Conference 2018 BAM

This developmental paper reports a work in progress study. It aims at investigating microand macro-level processes related to doctors’ professional/religious identity conflict in critical situations, such as End-of-Life (EoL) circumstances, and the consequences of such conflict on doctors’ psychological well-being (PWB). It achieves this by testing in a multilevel, moderated mediation analysis four hypotheses in a two-wave study of doctors working in 30 NHS Trusts in England. By providing a holistic framework on identity conflict dynamics (its emergence, unfolding and individual consequences), this developmental paper has the potential to make two key contributions to the literature on identity and identity conflict as experienced by doctors in EoL circumstance. First, it clarifies micro-level conditions and mechanisms of professional/religious identity conflict in doctors and its impact on PWB. Second, by including ‘extra-individual’ forces as macro-level boundary conditions, namely organisational ethical climate, it extends identity theories with social information processing theory.

A common assumption in higher education is that international students find it difficult to develop learning and friendship relations with host students. When students are placed in a student-centred environment, international students from different cultural backgrounds are ‘‘forced’’ to work together with other students, which allows students to learn from different perspectives. However, large lecture rooms may provide fewer opportunities for students to work together in small groups. The purpose of this article is to understand how 191 international students from 34 cultural backgrounds and 16 host students build learning and friendship relations in a large classroom of 207 students. We have used an innovative mixed-method design of social network analysis in a pre- and post-test manner combined with two sets of focus groups. Using multiple regression quadratic assignment procedures, the results indicate that learning ties after 11 weeks were significantly predicted by the friendship and learning ties established at the beginning of the module, (sub)specialisation, and whether students were Chinese or not. Contrary to previous findings, team divisions played only a marginal role in building (new) learning relations. A substantial segregation between Confucian Asian, European international and UK students was present. Follow-up qualitative data highlighted that international students made a conscious effort to build friendship and learning relations primarily outside the formal team, which for some were along co-national lines, while others were pro-actively looking for new perspectives from multi-national students. These results indicate that the instructional design might have a strong influence on how international and host students work and learn together. We believe that this study is the first to provide an in-depth and unique understanding of how international students from different cultural backgrounds build friendship and learning-relationships with other students in- and outside their classroom over time in a large classroom of 200+ students.

Krystin Zigan, YingFei Heliot, Alan Le Grys (2019)An Analysis of Implicit Leadership Theories and Explicit Behavior Within Religious Organizations, In: Academy of Management Proceedings2019(1) Academy of Management

This paper explores the relationship between leaders and followers by investigating the level of congruence between the implicit leadership theories of leaders and followers, and the actual behavior of leaders across three hierarchical levels. By investigating religious organizations, we are able to identify contextual factors, which have not been explored in much detail. Applying a qualitative case study method, we conducted 34 semi-structured interviews in the Church of England and found gaps between perceived and actual leadership behavior which we explain by analyzing institutional, organizational (e.g., vacuums in leadership) and individual factors. We contribute to the literature of implicit leadership theory by identifying leadership attributes such as the ability to help others to flourish to be highly relevant in explaining the relationship between leaders and followers in a religious setting. Our research has substantial research and practical implications for the recruitment and training of Church leaders and followers.

Purpose Legal changes in medical regulations towards End-of-Life circumstances have led doctors to experience religious and professional identity conflicts and behavioural dilemmas. Despite the detrimental consequences on doctors’ well-being, medicine efficiency and society’s welfare, research on this topic and its underlying mechanisms has been overlooked in organisational studies. The purpose of this propositional paper is to address this gap by offering a new conceptual framework, grounded on Social Identity Theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1986), Identity Theory (Stryker and Serpe, 1982) and Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger, 1962).

Y Héliot, Michael Riley (2010)A study of indicators of willingness in the knowledge transfer process, In: Journal of Management & Organization16(3)pp. 399-410 eContent Management Pty Ltd
Y Heliot, B Rienties (2012)How does Anxiety and Willingness to share Knowledge impact Networked Learning, In: Proceedings of the 19th EDINEB Conference The Role of Business Education in a Chaotic Worldpp. 85-92
YingFei Heliot, IH Gleibs, A Coyle, D Rousseau, C Rojon (2017)Conflict and Complementarity between Religious and Occupational Identities in the Workplace, In: Academy of Management Proceedings 201711028(1) Academy of Management

Despite its recognition as an organizational diversity issue impacting personal well-being, little research to date addresses religious identity in the workplace. We conduct a systematic review of relevant literature and develop a conceptual framework to address a critical question: How do religious and occupational identities relate to each other in the workplace and with what antecedents and consequences?’ We specify key definitions and explicate the importance of the connection between religious and organizational identity to contemporary debates regarding workplace diversity. The systematic review uses a search strategy informed by an advisory panel of experts. Through a well-specified search process we conduct comprehensively screen the literature and ultimately identify 32 relevant peer-reviewed articles that form the basis of our synthesis and analysis. Findings point to three forms of religious and occupational identity relationships: compatible, incompatible and non-overlapping. Each has distinct implications for identity tension and employee well-being. Evidence suggests the benefits of expressing religious identity at work and helping employees negotiate their religious and occupational identities. Finally, we develop a theoretical framework that specifies the antecedents of the activation of religious and occupational identity in the workplace, the nature of the identity negotiation that activation triggers and its outcomes for individuals and the organization.

YingFei Heliot, Jenna Mittelmeier, Bart Rienties (2019)Developing learning relationships in intercultural and multi-disciplinary environments: a mixed method investigation of management students’ experiences, In: Studies in Higher Educationpp. 1-15 Taylor & Francis (Routledge)

In this article, we suggest that competencies in working in intercultural and multidisciplinary environments are part of expected key skills in contemporary organisations. Higher educational institutions across the globe are pressured to contribute to the development of such key skills. Using social identity theory, through social network analysis of 113 postgraduate management students in one UK business school and follow-up focus group interviews (N = 16), we have identified three types of learners: Co-National Learners, Bridge-Building Learners, and Cross-National Learners. We argue that developing learning relationships in intercultural and multidisciplinary environments needs to go beyond a cultural-only approach, and the understanding of identity has an important place.

L. Carminati, Y. Héliot (2018)Between Multiple Identities and Ethical Dilemmas: Healthcare Professionals' Identity Conflict Perception and Ethical Behaviour in End-Of-Life Circumstances, In: The European Conference on Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences 2018: Official Conference Proceedings The International Academic Forum (IAFOR)

Legal changes in medical regulations and advancements in medical technology have challenged healthcare organisations’ approaches to ethical controversies and influenced healthcare professionals’ clinical practice, especially in End-of-Life (EoL) situations. In such situations, healthcare professionals may experience moral identity conflicts and ethical dilemmas. Indeed, the moral code of conduct of doctors and nurses’ professional identity can interact with the moral values of their other non-work identities. These ethical conflicts could significantly affect healthcare professionals’ actions, patient care and quality of healthcare. Although a thorough understanding of identity conflict emergence, perception and influence would help healthcare professionals and organisations to promptly respond to such consequences, research has not exhaustively addressed these ethical conflict dynamics. Therefore, through an interdisciplinary perspective integrating theoretical and empirical works in management/organisation studies and medical literature, this paper explores healthcare professionals’ ethical identity conflicts perception and behaviour in EoL circumstances. To pursue this aim, a qualitative research methodology has been chosen. Semi-structured interviews (N=54) are conducted among healthcare professionals, implementing both theoretical sampling, to strengthen the rigour of the study, and random sampling, to ameliorate any potential selection bias. The tradition of thematic analysis is followed to analyse the data. Hence, by offering an in-depth understanding of how ethical conflicts are experienced by doctors and nurses and bringing new insights on healthcare professionals’ behavioural consequences in terms of decision making and clinical practice, this paper enriches current works on ethical identity conflicts proposing findings and themes related to spiritual/religious identity, moral identity, procrastination of duties and absenteeism.

Krystin Zigan, YingFei Héliot, Alan Le Grys (2019)Analyzing leadership attributes in faith-based organizations: Idealism versus reality, In: Journal of Business Ethics Springer

This paper aims to contribute to the growing discussion about leadership in the contemporary Church of England with a particular interest in the complex interaction between social context and leadership practices. Implicit leadership theory is used to explore mutual expectations around distributed models of lay and ordained leadership as well as ‘ordinary’ members’’ of congregation. Applying a qualitative research method, we conducted 32 semi-structured interviews in six Church of England parishes. Through the systematic analysis of relevant contextual factors at multiple levels, we identify limited congruence between ideal leadership attributes and actual behavior. We contribute to the implicit leadership theory literature by identifying ethical attributes, such as the ability to help others flourish, as particularly pertinent to the religious setting. We also identify the malleability of some leadership attributes. We further contribute to the literature on organizational studies in faith-based organizations by offering novel insights into the relationship between leadership, followership and contextual factors at local parish level which have significant practical implications for recruiting and training church leaders and followers.

Lara Carminati, YingFei Heliot (2019)Between multiple identities and personal struggles: Healthcare professionals’ identity conflict perception and responses in challenging situations, In: Proceedings of the European Academy of Management Annual Conference 2019 (EURAM 2019) European Academy of Management

Due to the increasing diversity and complexity of today’s workplaces, individuals may experience identity conflict between the multiple identities they hold. Working under pressure and high uncertainty, healthcare professionals may face identity conflict between their professional and personal identities and values, especially in challenging situations. Although such conflict can significantly affect doctors and nurses’ psychological and behavioural responses and, ultimately, the quality of the healthcare system, how identity conflict emerges and unfolds remains unclear. By integrating works in organisational- management and medical literature, we thus explore healthcare professionals’ identity conflict dynamics in challenging situations, such as End-of-Life circumstances. We conducted a qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews (N= 47), among healthcare professionals working for the English National Healthcare Service. We implemented both theoretical and random samplings and followed grounded theory approaches to analyse the data. Our findings show that identity conflict was perceived between different identities but also within the same identity and, surprisingly, the conflict was stimulated by perspective taking processes. Lastly, behavioural responses to identity conflict included seeking peer support and doing reflective practices, whereas its psychological consequences unexpectedly embrace identity growth and positive learning dynamics. Hence, this paper contributes to and extends newer approaches in the identity literature by, firstly, focusing on identity conflict in depth, as one of the intrapsychic relationships of multiple identities simultaneously activated; and, secondly, unravelling some of the conditions whereby identity conflict can emerge and affect healthcare professionals’ psychological and behavioural responses.

Krystin Zigan, YingFei G Héliot, Alan Le Grys (2021)When Values and Ethics of Care Conflict: A Lived Experience in the Roman Catholic Church, In: Work, employment and society SAGE Publications

This article investigates contemporary understandings of the ethics of care. While the ethics of care is predominantly known as showing empathy and support to others, analysing the complex relationship between institutional and personal values of clerical leaders and the congregation in the Roman Catholic Church in England reveals very different understandings. The sociological and psychological concepts of authority, pastoral care and identity are used to analyse the role of a female youth work leader in a Roman Catholic parish who is exposed to different (conservative and liberal) leadership approaches. She explains how her views on care, gender and participation differ from those of three clerical leaders and powerfully illustrates the resulting conflicts between the priests but also towards the congregation. This story shows that individual agency influences strong conservative institutional values and that leadership in faith-based organisations needs to embrace the complex interplay between institutional and personal dynamics.

YingFei Héliot, I.H. Gleibs, A. Coyle, D. Rousseau, C. Rojon (2020)Religious identity in the workplace: A systematic review, research agenda, and practical implications, In: Human Resource Management59(2)pp. 153-173 Wiley

We conducted a systematic review of relevant literature to address how religious and occupational identities relate to each other in the workplace. We identified 53 relevant publications for analysis and synthesis. Studies addressed value differences associated with religion and occupation, identity tensions, unmet expectations, and the connection of religious identity to well-being and work outcomes. Key variables in the connection between religious and occupational identities included personal preferences, the fit between religious identity and job-related concerns, and the organization’s policies, practices and expectations. We highlight the personal and organizational consequences of being able to express religious identity at work and the conditions that promote high congruence between religious identity and its expression in the workplace. From these findings, we develop a research agenda and offer recommendations for management practice that focus on support for expression of religious identity at work while maintaining a broader climate of inclusion.

Ilka Gleibs, YingFei Héliot (2018)Understanding the Relationship Between Religious and Occupational Identities: A Systematic Literature Review of Organization Studies, In: SAGE Research Methods Cases Part 2 SAGE Publications

This case study describes our experience in conducting a systematic review of the relevant literature to address the question of how religious and occupational identities relate to each other in the workplace. In so doing, we offer practical advice for the novice researcher in the steps involved in conducting a systematic literature review, highlighting the questions that need to be taken into consideration, particularly in deciding when to include or exclude a publication. We describe the practical lessons learned throughout the course of our research process.

J Mittelmeier, YingFei Heliot, B Rienties, D Whitelock (2015)The Role Culture and Personality Play in an Authentic Online Group Learning Experience, In: EDiNED 2015 Conference Proceedings

Both educators and students face challenges in successful collaborative work, particularly when students come from a diverse set of backgrounds and cultures. This is especially the case at business schools, which have some of the most diverse student populations in the UK. One explanation for this could be that culture and personality influence behaviour in group work, creating mismatched expectations. This assumption has led to current research focusing upon student reflections and perceptions of these challenges, while few studies objectively explore what influences actual student behaviours in group work. Therefore, this paper describes a learning analytics study of an activity designed to replicate a group learning experience. In a lab environment, 58 students at a UK business school were placed in small groups to work with a Harvard Business School case study using an online chat to communicate with all members of their group. Student contributions were analysed and compared using Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010) and the Big Five Ten Item Personality Measure (Gosling, Rentfrom, & Swann, 2003). Our analysis suggests that cultural traits in particular influences and can predict student group work behaviours.

YingFei Heliot, Ilka Gleibs (2020)A distinct dimension of diversity? A qualitative study of religious identity in the workplace, In: 80th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

Religious identity is recognised as a neglected facet of diversity with important connections to work behaviour and other outcomes. We conduct a qualitative study interviewing 51 religiously identified participants from four occupational groups: Christian healthcare workers, Christian teachers, Jewish teachers, Christian lawyers and Christian bankers. Following thematic analysis of their experiences, we develop five themes characterizing dynamics of religious identity in the workplace. Findings shed new light on how employees negotiate their religious identity in the workplace including experiences related to “disclosing and discussing religious identity in the workplace”; “tactics in managing conflicting identities”; “relationships between self and others”; “influence of religious values on professional conduct”; and the “salience of religious identity”. The study makes two contributions to research on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. First, we find specific challenges that employees face when negotiating their own (or others) religious identity in the work place. Second, we identify how diversity within a person (intraindividual identity dynamics), between people (interpersonal relations) and in a group (group dynamics) contribute to the functioning of religious identity in the workplace."

B Rienties, YingFei Heliot (2018)Enhancing (in)formal learning ties in interdisciplinary management courses: a quasi-experimental social network study, In: Studies in Higher Education48(3)pp. 437-451 Taylor & Francis

While interdisciplinary courses are regarded as a promising method for students to learn and apply knowledge from other disciplines, there is limited empirical evidence available whether interdisciplinary courses can effectively “create” interdisciplinary students. In this innovative quasi-experimental study amongst 377 Master’s students, in the control condition students were randomised by the teacher into groups, while in the experimental condition students were “balanced” by the teacher into groups based upon their initial social network. Using Social Network Analysis, learning ties after eleven weeks were significantly predicted by the friendship and learning ties established at the beginning of the course, as well as (same) discipline and group allocation. The effects were generally greater than group divisions, irrespective of the two conditions, but substantially smaller than initial social networks. These results indicate that interdisciplinary learning does not occur “automatically” in an interdisciplinary module. This study contributes to effective learning in interdisciplinary learning environments.

J Mittelmeier, YingFei Heliot, B Rienties, D Whitelock (2016)Using Social Network Analysis to predict online contributions: The impact of network diversity in cross-cultural collaboration, In: Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Web Sciencepp. 269-273

Although collaborative web-based tools are often used in blended environments such as education, little research has analysed the predictive power of face-to-face social connections on measurable user behaviours in online collaboration, particularly in diverse settings. In this paper, we use Social Network Analysis to compare users’ pre-existing social networks with the quantity of their contributions to an online chat-based collaborative activity in a higher education classroom. In addition, we consider whether the amount of diversity present in one’s social network leads to more online contributions in an anonymous cross-cultural collaborative setting. Our findings indicate that pre-existing social connections can predict how much users contribute to online education-related collaborative activities with diverse group members, even more so than academic performance. Furthermore, our findings suggest that future Web Science research should consider how the more traditionally ‘qualitative’ socio-cultural influences affect user participation and use of online collaborative tools.

Alan Le Grys, Krystin Zigan, Ying Fei Heliot (2018)Implicit Leadership and Followership Theory: the view from ’below’, In: Proceedings of the Ecclesiology and Ethnography Conference 2018 The Network for Ecclesiology and Ethnography

As Loveday Alexander and Mike Higton point out in their penetrating and thoughtful Faithful Improvisation1, interest in leadership in the Church has grown exponentially in recent decades. The roots of this interest can be traced back at least to the early 1960s; but, driven significantly by the rise of the Church Growth Movement in the United States, leadership had become a dominant theme in ministerial discourse in the UK by the mid-1990s.2 Leadership is now one of the key criteria used to select candidates for ordination in the Church of England (C of E),3 and the highly controversial Green Report4 adds to a growing sense that secular management theory may have penetrated and perhaps colonised the organisational mind-set of the Church nationally. The focus of this study, however, lies at the other end of the C of E structure: what evidence is there, if any, of a distinctive approach to leadership in local congregations, or are secular models simply assumed and imported into day-to-day parish activity?

Purpose This systematic review uses cross-disciplinary literature to examine identity conflict and complementarity between occupational and religious identities in healthcare settings and address questions such as how do the religious and occupational identities of health care staff interact? In what situations are these identity dimensions productively compatible? In what situations do they create tension and conflict for the staff member and their occupational practice? What implications do any tensions/conflict create for the well-being of the staff members, and their colleagues, the quality of service provision, and the organisations? How might these implications be best managed at individual, work team, and organisational levels? Design/Methodology We use both qualitative (expert interview N=10) and systematic review methods (search in cross-disciplinary and open grey literature) Results The results of the review concern possibilities for complementarity between these identity dimensions but also conflict where religious identity may make demands that can generate avoidance of some occupational requirements. Limitations The systematic review has included English language only as the language inclusion criteria which may have restricted its coverage. Research/Practical Implications The results have research implications for identifying current research gaps in identity conflict. It also has practical implications for well-being and practice in healthcare settings in the management of the psychological and social consequences of perceived identity incompatibility, for example, stress, anxiety, negative self-evaluation, intra-team conflict. Originality/Value We provide a comprehensive overview of cross-disciplinary literature on the relationship between religious and occupational identity, including the nature and management of identity compatibility and conflict within healthcare organisations.

Lara Carminati, YingFei Heliot (2019)Healthcare professionals’ identity conflict and ethical behaviour in End-of-Life circumstances: A qualitative study, In: Proceedings of the XX Italian Workshop of Organization Studies (WOA 2019 "Identity and Pluralism across Organizational Studies and Practices") University of Palermo

Due to the increasing diversity and complexity of today’s society, identity conflicts represent an unpredictable challenge in workplace environments (Horton et al., 2014). Legal changes in medical regulations and advancements in medical technology have accentuated uncertainty in healthcare organisations (Karnik & Kanekar, 2016), exposing healthcare professionals to identity conflicts in the form of personal struggles and ethical dilemmas (Hurst et al., 2005). Indeed, doctors and nurses’ decision-making responsibility and clinical practice influence other people’s lives, especially in End-of-Life (EoL) circumstances (Kälvemark et al., 2004). In these ethically-charged circumstances doctors and nurses’ professional identity values can interact with their other non-work identities values (Curlin et al., 2007), leading to identity conflict experience (Ashforth et al. 2008). Such identity conflicts can impact healthcare professionals’ psychological outcomes (Genuis & Lipp, 2013), decision making (Hurst et al., 2005), patient care (Bedford, 2012) and quality of the healthcare system (Sulmasy, 2008). Despite these serious consequences at individual, organisational and societal levels, how such ethical identity conflicts in healthcare professionals arise, are perceived and affect their behaviour remains unclear.