Showing papers on "Organizational identification published in 2013"

Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Orientation, and the Job Performance of Frontline Employees

Abstract: A study involving a Global 500 company finds that frontline employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) can contribute to their customer orientation (self-rated) and objective job performance (supervisor-rated) by activating social identification processes. Employees identify with the organization based in part on the extent to which CSR is supported by salient and job-relevant others both internal and external to the organization. Looking internally, employees identify with the organization to the extent that they perceive management to support CSR. Looking externally, employees can identify with customers (called employee-customer identification) to the extent they perceive customers to support the company’s CSR. Both effects are enhanced when employees feel CSR is an important (versus non-important) part of their self-concept. Organizational identification directly drives job performance while employee-customer identification contributes to job performance through its effects on organizational identification and customer orientation.

Organizational Identity and Organizational Identification A Review of the Literature and Suggestions for Future Research

Abstract: In this article, we present an overview of the literatures on organizational identity and organizational identification. We provide overviews of four major approaches to organizational identity: functionalist, social constructionist, psychodynamic, and postmodern. The literature on organizational identification, by contrast, exhibits greater consensus due to the hegemonic power of social identity theory, and is predominantly functionalist. We review recent research on organizational identification regarding performance outcomes and antecedents (mainly focusing on leadership and the social exchange perspective), and in relation to change and virtual contexts. Some suggestions for further research are then offered. Finally an overview of the articles in this special issue is presented.

Is the Perception of ‘Goodness’ Good Enough? Exploring the Relationship Between Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Organizational Identification

Abstract: Drawing on social identity theory and organizational identification theory, we develop a model of the impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on employees’ organizational identification. We argue that employees’ perceptions of their company’s social responsibility behaviors are more important than organizational reality in determining organizational identification. After defining perceived corporate social responsibility (PCSR), we postulate how PCSR affects organizational identification when perception and reality are aligned or misaligned. Implications for organizational practice and further research are discussed.

Multicultural Employees: A Framework for Understanding How They Contribute to Organizations

Abstract: Organizations are experiencing a rise in a new demographic of employees—multicultural individuals, who identify with two or more cultures and have internalized associated cultural schemas. I create a map of possible ways to organize more than one cultural identity, based on identity integration, which ranges from separated to integrated, and identity plurality, which ranges from single to multiple. Cognitive and motivational mechanisms drawn from social identity theory explain how identity patterns then influence both benefits and challenges for multicultural employees, categorized into personal, social, and task outcomes. Organizational identification and organizational culture moderate relationships between multicultural identity patterns and outcomes. The framework presented in this article offers a theoretical basis for understanding how multicultural employees may contribute to their organizations.

Understanding employees' responses to corporate social responsibility: mediating roles of overall justice and organizational identification

Abstract: Prior research has suggested that corporate social responsibility (CSR) contributes to organisations' competitive advantage by influencing stakeholders' attitudes. While existing research indicates that CSR relates to some employee outcomes, the mechanisms that drive employees' responses to CSR initiatives remain largely unexplored. This study relies on social identity theory to propose and test a model with 181 hospital employees that attempts to explain why and how CSR can positively influences employees' attitudes. Specifically, this study examines the impact of two aspects of an organisation's socially responsible behaviours, i.e. employees' perceptions of CSR initiatives directed at internal and external stakeholders, on employees' job satisfaction. The findings indicate that perceived CSR relates positively to job satisfaction through its effects on overall justice perceptions and organisational identification. These results suggest that employees appear to use CSR initiatives to assess their organisation's character and identify with it. Accordingly, CSR initiatives have particular importance as a mean to support organisational efforts to create strong relationships with their employees and thereby improve their attitudes at work.

A multi-level investigation of psychological contract breach and organizational identification through the lens of perceived organizational membership: testing a moderated-mediated model

Abstract: Drawing on the perceived organizational membership theoretical framework and the social identity view of dissonance theory, I examined in this study the dynamics of the relationship between psychological contract breach and organizational identification. I included group-level transformational and transactional leadership as well as procedural justice in the hypothesized model as key antecedents for organizational membership processes. I further explored the mediating role of psychological contract breach in the relationship between leadership, procedural justice climate, and organizational identification and proposed separateness–connectedness self-schema as an important moderator of the above mediated relationship. Hierarchical linear modeling results from a sample of 864 employees from 162 work units in 10 Greek organizations indicated that employees' perception of psychological contract breach negatively affected their organizational identification. I also found psychological contract breach to mediate the impact of transformational and transactional leadership on organizational identification. Results further provided support for moderated mediation and showed that the indirect effects of transformational and transactional leadership on identification through psychological contract breach were stronger for employees with a low connectedness self-schema.

Developing trust with peers and leaders: Impacts on organizational identification and performance during entry

Abstract: This study extends existing research about how peers and leaders influence newcomers' adjustment to an organization or profession by examining how specific trust perceptions evolve over time. We test a model of how affect-based trust in a leader and work unit peers develops from a basis of cognition-based trust and later influences organizational identification and role-related performance. U.S. Army soldiers were examined at the beginning, middle, and end of an intensive, 14-week residential entry program of training and collective socialization. Cross-lagged structural equation analyses supported a causal relationship of individuals' cognition-based trust with affect-based trust directed toward their unit peers and, separately, their leaders. Individuals with high levels of chronic relational identity exhibited a stronger time-lagged relationship between cognition-based trust and affect-based trust for trust in peers but not for trust in a leader. Affect-based trust in the leader had lagged influences on organizational identification and role-related performance at time 3. Affect-based trust in peers was related over time to organizational identification but not to role-related performance. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the separate influences of social exchange and social identity processes on newcomer adjustment, with distinct roles played by peers and leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Procedural justice, supervisor autonomy support, work satisfaction, organizational identification and job performance: the mediating role of need satisfaction and perceived organizational support.

Abstract: Aim To test a model linking procedural justice, supervisor autonomy support, need satisfaction, organizational support, work satisfaction, organizational identification and job performance. Background Research in industrial and organizational psychology has shown that procedural justice and supervisor autonomy support lead to positive outcomes. However, very little research related to this subject has been conducted in healthcare settings. Moreover, few studies have examined mechanisms that could account for these positive relationships. Design A cross-sectional correlational design was used. Method Convenience sampling was used and a sample of 500 nurses working in haematology, oncology and haematology/oncology units in France was surveyed in 2011. The final sample consisted of 323 nurses (64·6% response rate). The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modelling. Results Procedural justice and supervisor autonomy support significantly and positively influenced need satisfaction and perceived organizational support, which in turn positively predicted work satisfaction, organizational identification and job performance. Conclusion Organizations could deliver training programmes for their managers aimed at enhancing the use of fair procedures in allocating outcomes and developing their autonomy-supportive behaviours to improve nurses' work satisfaction, organizational identification and job performance.

The relationship between perceived organizational support and affective commitment: A social identity perspective

Abstract: The present research examines how the social identity perspective contributes to a better understanding of the relationships between perceived organizational support, affective commitment, and employees’ performance at work. Using a sample of 253 employees from an engineering company, Study 1 found that organizational identification partially mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support and affective commitment. The results of Study 1 also indicated that the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational identification is moderated by organizational prestige. In Study 2, using a sample of 179 postal employees, the authors replicated the mediating role of organizational identification in the relationship between perceived organizational support and affective commitment and found that affective commitment mediates the relationship between organizational identification and supervisor’s ratings of extra-role performance.

Developmental leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: Mediating effects of self-determination, supervisor identification, and organizational identification

Abstract: The authors investigate three levels of self-identity in the workplace—self-determination, supervisor identification, and organizational identification—for their mediating effects on developmental leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors. Data from 469 supervisor–subordinate dyads in two Chinese firms show that supervisor identification is the strongest mediator, self-determination is the second, and organizational leadership is the third. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Love, Hate, Ambivalence, or Indifference? A Conceptual Examination of Workplace Crimes and Organizational Identification

Abstract: Although research has shown that there may be very different types of workplace crimes, scholarly work in this area a is currently fragmented with very little communication between very similar streams of research and b tends to be incomplete and can lead to conflicting findings. We address both of these shortcomings. First, we propose a typology of different types of workplace crimes consisting of pro-organizational, nonaligned-organizational, and anti-organizational crimes based on the intentions of the perpetrators. Second, we link these intentions to various identification “pathologies”—such as over-identification and over-disidentification, under-identification and ambivalent identification—and argue that these pathologies are linked to propensities to commit certain types of workplace crimes. Specifically, we contend that over-identification and over-disidentification have direct effects on workplace crimes, whereas under-identification and ambivalent identification indirectly influence the propensity to engage in workplace crimes. We suggest that this research aids us in clarifying the inconsistent conclusions in previous work in the domain of workplace crimes and that it emphasizes the importance of including organizational identification as a key factor in the extant models of workplace crimes. This research also highlights policy implications regarding workplace crimes in that it suggests that different agencies may be more effective in enforcing the law and disciplining those engaged in the different types of workplace crimes.

Why Do Donors Donate? Examining the Effects of Organizational Identification and Identity Salience on the Relationships among Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Donation Behavior

Abstract: With an empirical study in two nonprofit industries (a money-collecting and blood-collecting organization), the authors investigate how organizational identification and identity salience together function in relation to satisfaction, loyalty, and behavior. They develop and test a model that best represents relationships featuring donor-nonprofit identification and donor identity salience in existing satisfaction-loyalty studies. Overall, the study empirically confirms that donor-nonprofit identification and donor identity salience are distinct constructs and that both have direct positive effects on loyalty, but not that much on donations. Within the money donation context, both identification constructs have stronger total effects on donor loyalty than donor satisfaction, whereas in the blood donation context, donor satisfaction has a stronger effect on loyalty. In testing the causal direction between donor-nonprofit identification and donor satisfaction, the authors also find that the path should be co...

Standing by Your Organization: The Impact of Organizational Identification and Abusive Supervision on Followers’ Perceived Cohesion and Tendency to Gossip

Abstract: Abusive supervision has been shown to have significant negative consequences for employees’ well-being, attitudes, and behavior. However, despite the devastating impact, it might well be that employees do not always react negatively toward a leader’s abusive behavior. In the present study, we show that employees’ organizational identification and abusive supervision interact for employees’ perceived cohesion with their work group and their tendency to gossip about their leader. Employees confronted with a highly abusive supervisor had a stronger perceived cohesion and engaged in less gossiping behavior when they identified more strongly with their organization. Our findings illustrate that organizational identification functions as a buffer for those confronted with an abusive supervisor.

Authenticity, employee silence, prohibitive voice, and the moderating effect of organizational identification

Abstract: Authenticity is an important concept in positive psychology and has been shown to be related to well-being, health, and leadership effectiveness. The present paper introduces employee authenticity as a predictor of relevant workplace behaviors, namely employee silence and prohibitive voice. Converging evidence across two studies using cross-sectional and longitudinal designs demonstrates that when responding to hypothetical problematic workplace events (Study 1) or actual workplace experiences (Study 2), individual differences in employees’ authenticity predicted more self-reported voice behaviors and less silence that emanated from various motivations. Furthermore, authenticity scores consistently yielded predictive utility over and above the contribution of a broad set of individual and organization-based characteristics. Finally, organizational identification moderated the relation between authenticity and silence, such that for employees with high levels of identification, the relation between authent...

Perceptions of organizational context and job attitudes: The mediating effect of organizational identification

Abstract: Informed by social exchange theory and social identity theory, we developed a conceptual model that examines the mediating role of organizational identification in the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational context and their job attitudes. In our model, the antecedents include perceived organizational support (POS), procedural justice, and perceived job insecurity. The outcome variables consist of affective organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and intentions to leave. Our respondents were 591 workers employed in three different firms in China. The results of regression analyses showed that employees’ job attitudes are affected by their perceptions of organizational context and organizational identification. Further, organizational identification was found to mediate the effects of POS on the outcome variables.

It’s a matter of congruence: How interpersonal identification between sales managers and salespersons shapes sales success

Abstract: In recent years, marketing research and practice have recognized the importance of managing frontline employees’ identification. However, investigations so far have focused on identification at the collective level of the self, such as organizational identification, thereby largely neglecting important interpersonal identification processes at the relational level. Using a large-scale dataset comprising information from sales managers and salespeople as well as company data on customer satisfaction and sales performance, the authors make a first attempt to address this neglect by exploring important phenomena of interpersonal identification in the sales manager–salesperson dyad. Results show that initial increases in the level of identification congruence between sales managers and their respective salespeople yield positive incremental effects on sales performance and customer satisfaction. Findings also show that interpersonal over-identification and identification incongruence are negatively related to both outcomes. Results demonstrate how sales managers could mitigate these negative effects.

Extending the expanded model of organizational identification to occupations

Abstract: We extend Kreiner and Ashforth’s (2004) research on the expanded model of organizational identification to the occupational level of self. A survey of 251 customer service representatives from an Indian call center indicates that occupational identification, occupational disidentification, ambivalent occupational identification, and neutral occupational identification are empirically differentiable. Further, each form of identification in the expanded model was related to certain predictors from a set of ten situational and individual difference variables, and to certain outcomes from a set of five adjustment variables. The differing patterns of antecedents and outcomes for each form of occupational identification suggest that each form constitutes a relatively unique phenomenon.

The psychology of organizational change : viewing change from the employee's perspective

Abstract: Part I. Introduction: 1. Introduction Shaul Oreg, Rune Todnem By and Alexandra Michel 2. Capturing the positive experience of change: antecedents, processes, and consequences Mel Fugate Part II. The Nature of Employees' Reactions to Change: 3. Commitment to organizational change: theory, research, principles, and practice John P. Meyer and Leah K. Hamilton 4. Reactions to organizational change: an integrated model of health predictors, intervening variables, and outcomes Alexandra Michel and M. Gloria Gonzalez-Morales Part III. Predicting Employees' Reactions to Change: Individual Factors: 5. Reactions to organizational change from an individual differences perspective: a review of empirical research Maria Vakola, Achilles Armenakis and Shaul Oreg 6. Employee adaptability to change at work: a multidimensional, resource-based framework Karen van Dam Part IV. Predicting Employees' Reactions to Change: Organizational Factors: 7. When leadership meets organizational change: the influence of the top management team and supervisory leaders on change appraisals, change attitudes, and adjustment to change Alannah E. Rafferty, Nerina L. Jimmieson and Simon Lloyd D. Restubog 8. Anticipatory (in)justice and organizational change: understanding employee reactions to change Rashpal K. Dhensa-Kahlon and Jacqueline A. M. Coyle-Shapiro Part V. The Role of Communication within the Process of Change: 9. Quality change communication and employee responses to change: an investigation of the moderating effects of individual differences in an experimental setting Nerina L. Jimmieson, Alannah E. Rafferty and James E. Allen 10. Rumors during organizational change: a motivational analysis Prashant Bordia and Nicholas DiFonzo Part VI. The Interplay between Change and the Organization: 11. Change and fit, fit and change Steven Caldwell 12. Organizational identification and organizational change Frank Drzensky and Rolf van Dick Part VII. Conclusion and Commentary: 13. Commentary: change processes and action implications Richard W. Woodman and Jean M. Bartunek.

Athletes, Best Friends, and Social Activists: An Integrative Model Accounting for the Role of Identity in Organizational Identification

Abstract: Organizational identification links together organizational and member identity, yet we currently lack theory explicating the role of organizational and member identity variations in members' evaluations of organizations as identification targets. In this theoretical paper, I outline a model of organizational identification that aims to do three things—account for the role of identity in the identification process, integrate and extend disparate approaches to organizational identification, and illuminate social comparison processes underlying members' organizational evaluations. The model proposes that members undertake two identity comparisons to assess the value of organizational membership for identification purposes. In one, they compare the organization's current identity with their own identity, allowing them to assess the organization's ability to meet their motivation for self-continuity. In the other, they compare the organization's current identity with its expected identity, allowing them to assess the organization's ability to meet their motivation for self-esteem. After introducing the identity congruence framework, I apply to it the identity orientation lens to make specific predictions about how organizational and member identity shape the nature and outcomes of the specific social comparison content drawn upon in each of the two identity comparisons. This analysis reveals how the metrics used to evaluate organizations fundamentally vary by organizational and member identity. Implications for organizational studies are addressed, including those related to organizing and stakeholder theory.

The Moderating Effect of Machiavellianism on the Psychological Contract Breach–Organizational Identification/Disidentification Relationships

Abstract: We explore whether Machiavellianism—a personality trait which describes the extent to which individuals ignore values and ethical considerations when the ends justify the means—will influence their responses to their employing organizations’ failure to fulfil promised obligations (psychological contracts). Specifically, we draw on psychological contracts theory and the group value model to argue that Machiavellianism will moderate the relationships between psychological contract breach and (1) organizational identification; and (2) organizational disidentification. We tested our hypotheses in a study of 262 employees from various organizations at two points in time. We found that psychological contract breach was negatively related to organizational identification and positively related to organizational disidentification. Furthermore, employees with higher levels of Machiavellianism tended to disidentify with their organizations to a greater extent (at Time 2) in response to psychological contract breach (at Time 1) than did employees with low levels of Machiavellianism. Machiavellianism did not moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and organizational identification. Our study contributes to extant research exploring the importance of Machiavellianism in the workplace. Specifically, we show that employees with high levels of Machiavellianism are more likely to disidentify in response to psychological contract breach but do not tend to identify to a lesser degree. This study builds on the extant research exploring individual differences in the psychological contract dynamics by considering Machiavellianism as a moderator of the breach–outcome relationship.

Which Identities Matter? A Mixed-Method Study of Group, Organizational, and Professional Identities and Their Relationship to Burnout:

Abstract: Considerable research views group, organizational, and professional identities as theoretically and methodologically similar. This study suggests that these identities are generically different. An...

Nonlinear Moderating Effect of Tenure on Organizational Identification (OID) and the Subsequent Role of Oid in Fostering Readiness for Change

Abstract: This empirical study investigates the curvilinear moderating effects of organizational tenure on the relationships between two status evaluations, that is, perceived external prestige (PEP) and perceived internal respect (PIR), and organizational identification (OID). This study validated the components of group engagement model in South Asian context, which highlighted the significant difference in the effects of status evaluations on OID. The importance of OID in the development of employee’s readiness for change is also explored and tested. Survey method was used for collection of data from Pakistan. The results supported all the hypothesized relationships. This is one of the few studies which have explored the potential effects of organizational tenure on identification process, and tested the relationship between OID and readiness for change.

Two parallel mechanisms of the relationship between justice perceptions and employees' citizenship behaviour: A comparison of the organizational identification and social exchange perspective

Abstract: Based on the widely accepted relationship between procedural justice and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), this study examines and compares two mechanisms—social exchange with organization and organizational identification, through which employees are motivated to engage in organizational citizenship behaviour. A total of 152 teachers and their corresponding peers in a middle school completed the survey. We used bootstrapping to test our hypotheses. We found that procedural justice perception of employees is associated with their OCB-I (individual-oriented OCB) and OCB-O (organizational-oriented OCB) through two different mechanisms. Justice perception was related to OCB-I mainly through social exchange. Meanwhile the effect of justice perception on OCB-O was mainly channelled through organizational identification of the employees. Social exchange and identification are two parallel mechanisms, which may explain the relationship between procedural justice and OCB. However, their psychological me...

Does Fair Treatment in the Workplace Matter? An Assessment of Organizational Fairness and Employee Outcomes in Government

Abstract: The purpose of the current study was to investigate how perceptions of organizational fairness may facilitate positive outcomes and prevent negative consequences in government organizations. In that effort, this study examined relationship between perceived organizational fairness and organizational identification, job involvement and turnover intention with data collected through an organizational survey from 764 professional employees working in 65 geographically distributed offices in an agency in state government. The findings indicated that perceptions of procedural and distributive fairness have positive effects on professional employees’ job involvement and negative influences on their turnover intention, though these effects are mediated by their organizational identification. Implications of these findings for public management theory and practice are discussed.

Who are we made to think we are? Contextual variation in organizational, workgroup and career foci of identification

Abstract: An online survey-based study (N = 314) combining experimental and quasi-experimental elements was conducted to examine variation in employees' group identification in organizational contexts. The study measured three foci of identification (organization, workgroup, career) under three conditions of identity fit (organizational, workgroup, career) in two healthcare organizations (one public sector, one private sector) that had distinct organizational cultures (collectivist, individualist, respectively). Whilst workgroup identification was generally higher than organizational identification, this difference was moderated both by sector and by the interaction between sector and identity fit. This meant (1) that when the fit manipulation made workgroup identity salient, workgroup identification was only higher than organizational and career identification in the public-sector organization and (2) that when the fit manipulation made career identity salient, career identification was only higher than organizational and workgroup identification in the private-sector organization. These findings are consistent with hypotheses derived from self-categorization theory, which suggests that the salience of organizational identities defined at different levels of abstraction varies as a function of their accessibility and fit and hence is determined by their localized meaning. They are also inconsistent with assumptions that workgroup identity will always be preferred to more inclusive categorizations. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

The role of identification in giving sense to unethical organizational behavior: Defending the organization

Abstract: This language production experiment investigates communication's role in defending, and therefore giving sense to, organizational wrongdoing. The study suggests identification may possibly reduce organizations' moral learning capacity by encouraging highly identified members to engage in ethical sensegiving of their organizations' wrongdoing in defensive ways. Working adults (N = 318) responded to an organizational outsider regarding a gender discrimination lawsuit filed against their organization in one of two scenarios, which presented the organization's guilt as either ambiguous or certain. Highly identified members used more linguistic defense mechanisms and reported more intense feelings. Additionally, participants in the ambiguous condition used more linguistic defense mechanisms than those in the certain condition. Veteran members reported higher levels of organizational identification and used more linguistic defense mechanisms than newcomers. Language: en

Working With Subgroup Identities to Build Organizational Identification and Support for Organizational Strategy: A Test of the ASPIRe Model

Abstract: A growing body of evidence indicates that organizational identification underpins a range of important organizational outcomes. However, to date, the literature has provided little empirically grounded guidance for organizations that are trying to develop organizational identification among their employees. In this article, the authors aim to address this lacuna by testing the effectiveness of the ASPIRe (Actualizing Social and Personal Identity Resources) model—a model that specifies a sequence of structured activities designed to use subgroup identities as a platform for building organizational identification—in a bespoke workshop delivered to senior military health services personnel. As predicted by the ASPIRe model, participants reported increased levels of subgroup and organizational identification as a result of the workshop and were also more supportive of the organization’s strategy.

Perceived External Prestige and Employee Outcomes: Mediation Effect of Organizational Identification

Abstract: The study investigates the linkage of perceived external prestige with emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. On the basis of a sample of 484 medical sales employees, the present study found support for the assertion that employees’ perception about the external prestige of their organization is negatively related to both emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. The finding indicated a partial mediation effect of organizational identification on the relationship between perceived external prestige and turnover intention. However, there was a complete mediation effect of organizational identification on the relationship between perceived external prestige and emotional exhaustion. The study argues that organizations need to focus their external prestige toward their employees. The study adds to the existing literature by explaining the path in which perceived external prestige influences employees’ emotional exhaustion and turnover intention.