Identification

Conceptual Overview

Identification has a long history in the social sciences. Conceptualizations have ranged from a type of persuasion based on personal liking to a by-product of impersonal categorization based on one's membership in a social group. What unites recent conceptualizations is the implication of identity. To identify with a target (e.g., belief, person, collective) means that this target becomes self-referential. Thus, I identify with IBM when I see IBM as reflecting who I am. Historically, identification has been viewed primarily in cognitive terms. It has been argued to occur in at least two primary ways: (1) affinity, where I recognize a target (e.g., an organization) as reflecting who I am, and (2) emulation, where I strive to become more like a target.

Organizational identification is associated with a rather long list of antecedents and outcomes. With regard to the former, identification with an organization is most likely to occur when the organization is prestigious or otherwise attractive, when it is distinctive, when members are relatively homogeneous, and when the organization is salient when compared with other organizations. In general, these and related organizational antecedents help meet members' needs for consistency, self-esteem, meaning (e.g., serving a higher purpose), uncertainty reduction, and the like, and the more they do so, the more likely members are to identify with that organization. Identification with an organization may also be more likely when members are collocated and proximal than when they are physically dispersed, when one's affiliation with an organization is public and visible (versus private), when there is interpersonal attraction with other members, and when members have shared goals and/or shared history. However, it is important to note that identification is quite robust, and can occur even in the absence of some of these conditions. For example, Reicher, Spears, and Postmes's review of the social identity deidentification (SIDE) model shows how identification can form in the lack of physical proximity.

There have also been a multitude of advantages and disadvantages associated with having individuals [Page 628]identify with an organization. Traditionally, organizational identification has been linked with lower turnover, increased motivation and job satisfaction, and an increased willingness by employees to think and act in ways that are favorable to the organization. By contrast, more recent research has begun to examine the “dark side” of (over-) identification. Identifying too strongly with one's organization can result in high individual vulnerability (especially if the organization's reputation fails); distrust and paranoia; overdependence on and overconformity to organizational dictates; antisocial, unethical, immoral, and even tyrannical behaviors by both leaders and followers; decreased creativity and risk-taking; and the loss of an independent sense of self.

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