Three hundred sixty undergraduates participated in small groups in an experiment that tested 2 strategies, based on the social categorization approach, for reducing intergroup bias. Both strategies involved recategorizing members' conceptual representations of the aggregate compared with a control condition designed to maintain initial group boundaries. The recategorization treatments induced members of 2 3-person groups to conceive of both memberships as I 6-person group or as 6 separate individuals. The findings revealed that the one-group and separate-individuals conditions, as compared with the control condition, reduced intergroup bias. Furthermore, these recategorized conditions reduced bias in different ways consistent with Brewer's (1979) analysis and Turner's (1985) self-categorization theory. Specifically, the 1 -group representation reduced bias primarily by increasing the attractiveness of former out-group members, whereas the separate-individuals representation primarily decreased the attractiveness of former in-group members. Implications for the utility of these strategies are discussed.

This experiment examined the hypothesis derived from the social categorization perspective that intergroup cooperation reduces bias by transforming members' cognitive representations of the aggregate from 2 groups to 1 group. Two 3-person groups experienced intergroup contact under conditions that varied (a) members' representations of the aggregate as 1 group or 2 groups (without involving cooperation) and (b) the presence or absence of intergroup cooperation. As expected, in the absence of cooperation, bias was lower among Ss induced to conceive of the 6 participants as 1 group rather than as 2 groups. Also as predicted, among Ss in the 2-groups condition, intergroup cooperation increased the strength of the 1-group representation and decreased bias. Multiple regression mediation analysis revealed, as expected, that members' representations mediated bias and that the 1-group representation primarily increased the attractiveness of former outgroup members.

A number of phenomena of interest to management and organizational scholars have been investigated within the context of sport (e.g., compensation-performance relationships, escalating commitment, executive succession, sustainable competitive advantage). The authors are unaware, however, of any systematic effort to address the rationale, benefits, and potential of conducting organizational research within sport. The purpose of this 182 ♦ ♦ ♦ Downloaded from article is to investigate how studying within the context of sport can contribute to an understanding of management and of organizations with a focus on how such contribution can be achieved with creative and innovative research approaches. The authors present a general overview of the rationale for studying organizational phenomena within sport and provide a concise review of such research. With this as background, the authors discuss a number of organizational phenomena that they have studied within the domain of sport. The article suggests how organizational research might benefit by using sport as a context in ways not yet evident in the literature.This study was a direct test of the pay distributionperformance relationship in a field setting where individual and organizational performance were observable and could be reliably measured over an extended period of time.Bloom (1999, p. 25) This paper presents one of the first quantitative field studies in the escalation literature . . . designed . . . to know whether the amount one initially spends on a course of action can affect subsequent commitment. Staw and Hoang (1995, p. 475) The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of successors' abilities on the results of succession. Pfeffer and Davis-Blake (1986, p. 73)The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which the congruence between an organization's strategy and its human resources affects performance. Wright, Smart, and McMahan (1995, p. 1053) In this study, we investigate a central tenet of the resource-based view of the firm-that tacit knowledge often lies at the core of sustainable competitive advantage. Berman, Down, and Hill (2002, p. 13) E ach of the articles referenced above addresses a different phenomenon of interest to organizational scholars; that is, the pay distribution-performance relationship; escalating commitment; effects of executive succession; congruence among strategy, human resources, and performance; and the influence of tacit knowledge on sustainable competitive advantage. What each article has in common is that the phenomenon of interest was studied within the context of sport. Sport, thus, has proved to be an effective setting within which to conduct organizational research. We are unaware, however, of any concerted, systematic effort to address the rationale, benefits, and potential of such research.The purpose of this article is to investigate how research within sport can contribute to our understanding of management and of organizations with a focus on how such a contribution can be achieved ...

Workers involved in a business merger often display strong ingroup/outgroup biases that can threaten the merger's success. Social identity theory helps to explain why and when such problems will occur. Using that theory, strong cohesion and successful performance were identified as two characteristics of a workgroup that should increase its resistance to a merger. An experiment involving mergers between small task groups was conducted to test this claim. Each group's cohesion and performance was used to predict its enthusiasm for a merger before it occurred, and any ingroup/outgroup biases that it displayed afterwards. Cohesion was unrelated to either of these measures, but as we predicted, more successful groups were less enthusiastic and displayed stronger biases. Relative rather than absolute success was an especially good predictor of merger resistance. The results were discussed within the context of social identity theory, which generated several suggestions for further research on business mergers.

Using Frooman’s typology of stakeholder influence strategies, this research examines the strategies that stakeholders select to exert influence on a firm. Using an experimental approach, the responses of actual environmental leaders to a series of hypothetical vignettes were examined. The results of the experiment suggest how both structural and demographic variables can act as determinants of strategy choice along with how these two types of variables may both complement and inhibit one another. Specifically, the results suggest that repertoires of strategies play a critical role in stakeholder behavior. Demographic variables appear to define the repertoires of strategies the stakeholder will typically choose among, whereas structural variables further refine choice from within that repertoire.