Organizational Psychology

The article considers the phenomenon of “paradoxes of professional identity.” It has been shown that such a paradox can be related to contradictions between the components of the professional activity itself — with the “intra-professional reference points of identity” (in the context of a particular “ergatic system”). It can also be associated with external contradictions — with professionally accompanying identity guidances. Different grounds have been identified for the typology of identity paradoxes: those related to the mastering of activities at the stages of choice and preparation for the profession, at the stage of work itself and at the post-professional stages (retrospective professional identity). It is also shown that there may be contradictions and paradoxes between different types and different species (identified, found the meaning of work by one type, but not identified by another type). The very development of identity is understood as identifying and solving these paradoxes. As a promising direction of development of full professional identity it is proposed to consider the whole ergatic system, built with a focus on a socially significant goal. At the same time, such a goallargely removes paradoxical contradictions and lets us find out contradictions of higher level, whichcontributes both- to increase of labor productivity and personal development of the employee himself. Such understanding of the development of a full professional identity implies a shift of attention to the paradoxical nature of a particular professional work, finding out in it more complicated and interesting problematic issues and thus enriching the work activity itself. This also makes it possible to talk about the development of the employee himself as a professional and as a person (in terms of finding new opportunities in a particular kind of work, for better self-realization). It is shown that contradictions and paradoxes related to the realization of expectations on the part of society, company management and the employee’s inner circle may, on the one hand, be in the interests of society and culture, but may also contradict them. Such paradoxes and contradictions in the activities of organizational psychologists, professional advisers and couches become especially relevant, in the era of rethinking the pseudo-market relations in the country, finding more effective and socially oriented models of the economy. All this makes it possible to highlight peculiarities of development of professional identity of psychologists, to build problem-oriented programs of their training and help them more effectively in selection of such ways of self-realization that would ensure their better personal development.