Motivating Individuals and Groups at Work: A Social Identity Perspective on Leadership and Group Performance

Abstract

We argue that additional understanding of work motivation can be gained by incorporating current insights concerning self-categorization and social identity processes and by examining the way in which these processes influence the motivation and behavior of individuals and groups at work. This theoretical perspective that focuses on the conditions determining different self-definitions allows us to show how individual and group processes interact to determine work motivation. To illustrate the added value of this approach, we develop some specific propositions concerning motivational processes underpinning leadership and group performance.

Reversing downward performance spirals

“…Intergroup ("us-versus-them") dynamics are known to have a powerful impact on motivation and behavior (Ellemers, Gilder, & Haslam, 2004). We posited that intergroup dynamics play a key role both in initiating downward spirals and in determining their later trajectory.…”

Pursuing goals with others: Group identification and motivation resulting from things done versus things left undone.

“…For such individuals, group-oriented efforts are likely to be strategic and imitative of those they see as striving toward an important goal. Indeed, when circumstances induce individuals to identify with a group, they should be more likely to sustain their efforts on behalf of the group across changing circumstances, whereas when a conception of the self in more individual terms is salient (i.e., low group identification), people should adapt their group-oriented efforts depending on the extent to which efforts seem individually rewarding (Ellemers et al, 2004). As a result, factors that are known to alleviate social loafing (e.g., identifiability of individual contributions) might influence low identifiers who infer low goal value but not influence high identifiers who infer sufficient progress, as high 12 FISHBACH, HENDERSON, AND KOO identifiers may continue to reserve effort allocation for needier goal pursuits.…”

Socially oriented preferences in decision making and their relation with work and home environment

“…Managers scored higher than teachers on the non-material scale for professional life, which is in accord with the abovementioned work style of the both professions. Teachers prepare particular lessons and check homework individually, they can also depend solely on themselves during classes, whereas managers work collectively (teamwork, frequent meetings, projects carried out in small teams, constant consultations with co-employees, and the dependence of the effects on the other people's contribution), and the work style is closely linked to work motivation and relations with co-workers (Ellemers, Gilder & Haslam, 2004;Trist, 1981;Tajfel, 1978;after: Latham, 2007). In frequently cooperating work teams, people more eagerly act as a groups, and they tend to maintain closer relations.…”

“…The work style (dominating mode of performing tasks) -team or individual -has a direct influence on the degree of social identification with the group (Ellemers et al, 2004). Groups which frequently cooperate to meet their common targets unite, and their members tend to identify with their group more often than people usually working by themselves and realizing individual tasks.…”