Social identity processes in organizations

Social Identity Theory (SIT) is an elaborate and well-tested social-psychological theory on intergroup and social relations. As such, it therefore focuses on the role of groups rather than the individual and makes a compelling case that social situations and group life have a more profound impact on individuals than is generally assumed in the psychological literature. According to SIT, individuals are members of a number of social groups, and they derive their identity from these group memberships. This social identity or, better, social identities, as well as the level of identification with a social group, in large part determines the attitudes and behavior toward other people, groups, institutions, and society. SIT is founded on an enormous empirical base. As is common in social psychology, a set of laboratory experiments, with the substantial advantage that experimental research can claim to establish causality, constitute a large part of this empirical base. Although SIT was originally developed to understand intergroup relations in general, groups and therefore intergroup relations are abundant in the complex world of organizations. SIT has been successfully applied to the field of organizations since 1989. By now, there is a large body of research, not only supporting the basic assumptions of SIT but also contributing to further development of ideas and theory, as well as offering practical implications for organization and management science. Typical organizational issues such as leadership and communication processes but also relatively modern topics such as gender issues and diversity of the work force have been addressed since the mid-1990s.