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We integrate the predictions of prospect theory, the threat-rigidity hypothesis, and institutional theory to suggest how patterns of institutional persistence and change depend on whether decision makers view environmental shifts as potential opportunities for or threats to gaining legitimacy. We argue that in the event that decision makers face ambiguity in their reading of the environment, they initiate decoupled substantive and symbolic actions that simultaneously accommodate the predictions of prospect theory and the threat-rigidity hypothesis.

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We examine the organizational identification of contract workers who are associated with two organizations, their primary employer and their client. We conducted a study of contract workers in the information technology industry to address three questions: (1) What are the antecedents of contract workers' identification with the work organizations with which they are associated? (2) Do these antecedents differentially predict identification with each of the target organizations? and (3) What is the relationship between contract workers' identification with their employing organization and their identification with their client organization? Results indicate that contract workers identify with both the employing and client organizations based on perceived characteristics of the organization as well as social relations within the organization. Perceived characteristics of the organization are more closely related with identification with the employer, and social relations variables are more closely related with identification with the client. Contract workers are more likely to identify with both their client and their employing organization when the two are perceived to be similar on key attributes.

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This study examines whether dissimilarity among employees that is based on their work status (i.e., whether they are temporary or internal workers) influences their organization-based self-esteem, their trust in and attraction toward their peers, and their altruism. A model that is based on social identity theory posits that work-status dissimilarity negatively influences each outcome variable and that the strength of this relationship varies depending on whether employees have temporary or internal status and the composition of their work groups. Results that are based on a survey of 326 employees (189 internal and 137 temporary) from 34 work groups, belonging to 2 organizations, indicate that work-status dissimilarity has a systematic negative effect only on outcomes related to internal workers when they work in temporary-worker-dominated groups.

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