Responding to negative social identity: a taxonomy of identity management strategies

Abstract

Taken from literature on social identity theory and social comparison theory, 12 strategies of identity management were identified as possible responses to negative social identity. A taxonomy with two orthogonal axes is proposed as theoretical organization of these diverse strategies. While the first axis considers responses as being either individual or collective, the second axis refers to the distinction between behaviours and cognitions. It is assumed that the German unification process implied a lower status position of East Germans relative to West Germans on relevant comparison dimensions, and that East Germans have to deal with this threat to their identity. Hence, data of an East German sample are used to empirically systematize identity management strategies, and, thus, to test the proposed taxonomy. Results support the expected four‐factor solution only for those strategies taken from social identity theory, while the responses derived from social comparison research build a fifth factor. In addition, the empirical assignments of strategies to cells of the taxonomy are only partly in line with the expected pattern. The empirical findings suggest some clarification and modifications of the proposed response taxonomy. The most important refers to a re‐interpretation of the taxonomy's first axis, which now differentiates between responses according to the specific changes of the comparison parameters they imply. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Dominant and Non-Dominant Groups' Responses to Social Change: The Economic Transformation Process in South Africa

“…The first two strategies represent the extremes of Tajfel's social mobility-social change dimension (Tajfel, 1978) and also represent the most investigated strategies of dominant and non-dominant groups. Individualization and re-categorization, on a higher level, represent strategies by which individuals either shift from a social to personal self-categorization or from an ingroup category to an inclusive category consisting of both ingroup and outgroup (see Blanz et al, 1998). Within the context of the present study, the latter two strategies represent a cognitive shift by which the participants avoid interracial comparisons.…”

The Paradox of Dueling Identities: The Case of Local Senior Executives in MNC Subsidiaries

“…Social identity theory assumes that a disadvantaged ingroup status results in an unsatisfactory or negative social identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). Because people strive for a positive social identity, members of low-status groups may leave their groups to restore their positive social identity (Blanz et al, 1998;Tajfel, 1978). Consistent with this prediction, this study found that to the extent that local senior executives perceive the local staff to be incompetent (thus, identification with them represents a negative social identity), these executives tend to think about leaving the group (i.e., have higher levels of turnover intentions).…”

“…In this strategy, privileged members of a low-status group make a career for themselves without changing the status relations between the low-and the high-status groups by identifying with the high-status group and disidentifying with, or in a sense, "exiting" from (Hirschman, 1970), the low-status group (cf. Blanz, Mummendey, Mielke, & Klink, 1998). Consistent with this reasoning, Tajfel and Turner (1979) suggested that a disadvantageous social identity may result in intentions to leave a low-status group.…”

Ideal selves as identity management strategies

“…Tajfel andTurner (1979, 1986) distinguished three identity management strategies: individual mobility (i.e., the individual's position is changed whilst the status relations between the comparison groups remain unchanged); creativity strategies (i.e., comparison references are changed in one or the other way so that negative comparison results become less important) and social competition (i.e., to seek social change). Based on self-categorisation theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987) an additional strategy was introduced by Blanz, Mummendey, Mielke, and Klink (1998) which is called individualisation. The notion of individualisation essentially describes the shift from social to personal self-categorisation, i.e., people attribute more importance to their personal than to their social identity.…”