Is your professional identity multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary? Knowing this matters for the future of work.

The basis of my research is a framework I created to show there are three main types of professional identity: singularity, multiplicity, and hybridity.

I developed this because there's a gap in how we talk and think about professional identity.

This framework is critical because it expands outdated research of workers as being binary (either/or) or multi (many), and adds a third option, hybridity (both/and).

No other framework exists that demonstrates this in terms of professional identity, and it's overdue.

Now, let's go deeper.

I'm about to explain a model that shows a progression of disciplinarities in terms of complexity, and it's similar to mine on professional identity. This model reinforces why hybridity is a significant addition to how to we think about talent, talent development and talent mobility.

As we know, workers today accumulate knowledge in many disciplines. We often don't know what to do with them, where they belong in the workforce, or what role is the best fit.

Talent managers and career development specialists do their best to figure out how to help individuals whose disciplinary knowledge goes beyond one discipline, but it's tricky.

I believe this next section sheds light on that problem.

THE HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OF DISCIPLINARITIES

A discipline, in its simplest definition, is a branch of knowledge. Your college major is a discipline. That thing you taught yourself is part of a discipline. You can know a little (or a lot) in a variety of disciplines.

In our careers, we become known for our subject matter expertise (aka disciplines): communications, computer science, wellness, etc.

If we add prefixes to the word "discipline," it changes the meaning. When we call someone multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary, we need to be intentional about how we use that term and why. If you've been using the wrong one, you're about to find out.

Here's a sketch that shows a spectrum from intradisciplinary to transdisciplinary:

This image was created by Jensenius who also provides these definitions:

Intradisciplinary: working within a single discipline.
Crossdisciplinary: viewing one discipline from the perspective of another.
Multidisciplinary: people from different disciplines working together, each drawing on their disciplinary knowledge.
Interdisciplinary: integrating knowledge and methods from different disciplines, using a real synthesis of approaches.
Transdisciplinary: creating a unity of intellectual frameworks beyond the disciplinary perspectives.

What you're seeing is an evolution from single to multi to "transcendence" or as Stember articulates:

"...this is a hierarchical structure of increasing complexity, from intradisciplinary work being wholly within one discipline, to transdisciplinary being a complex ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ transcendence of boundaries."

Notice in the last two images, inter and trans, the smaller circles create either a Venn diagram or a wholly unified circle of circles.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR HYBRID PROFESSIONALS?

The point here is that the way we talk about people's disciplinary abilities and skills matters as do their professional identities. Calling someone crossdisciplinary versus interdisciplinary are two very different ways of describing how they work.

Do you intend to hire a multidisciplinary person or a transdisciplinary person? Why would you want one over the other? These are things that need to be considered in HR hiring decisions and team management practices.

When we say a worker is multi-talented or multidimensional, in terms of a multidisciplinary lens, that means they have many professional identities in many areas of knowledge.

When we say a worker is hybrid, from a disciplinary lens, that means they are at the inter or trans levels (depending on the person and their level of disciplinary complexity). This worker is either integrating different disciplines and identities together or forging new paths at the transcendent level.

To make this more concrete, I love this illustration by Jo Bailey and Kate Hannah that brings disciplinarities back to food. (If you've seen my TEDx, you know I love a pizza analogy, so this one takes the cake!)

What stands out in this illustration is the progression from simple to complex. Identifiable ingredients (the salad) become less distinguishable (the stew) until they eventually converge into the creation of something entirely new (the cake) that "transcends" boundaries. Transdisciplinarity looks nothing like the original ingredients because it unifies into an entirely new form.

My favorite note in this illustration is this, "More tasty!" To me this means that the more complexity and transdisciplinarity there is, the more divine and delicious the final product becomes.

Who enjoys cake more than carrots?

This is what it means to be a hybrid professional.

Not only is hybrid professional identity the sum of many parts, but it is a holistic creation that defies categorization and becomes a new type of professional. The more rare and complex the hybridity and indistinguishable the parts, the more likely a worker is to be at the trans level, transcending boundaries.

FINAL TAKEAWAYS

The next time you call someone cross, multi, inter, or transdisciplinary, think carefully as to why.
People who are hybrid professionals possess interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary identities.
If someone has many professional identities, consider if they are a salad, stew, or a cake.
And, if you're hiring an employee, creating a job posting, or looking for a job, how are you describing the position or yourself in terms of hierarchy of disciplinarity? Are you listing various disciplines as job duties or are you explaining how those disciplines are united?