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This article provides a critical review of four constructs-organizational identification, organizational commitment, occupational identification, and occupational commitment-to advance our understanding about how public sector employees from different occupations may become psychologically attached to their organizations. This review is intended to clarify previous inconsistencies as well as spark new interest among public administration researchers to examine sources and consequences of public employees’ organizational identification and commitment. This article also elucidates about how public sector employees’ attachment to their occupations may influence their attachment to their organizations. In that effort, this article reviews interrelationships among the four constructs. Finally, based on the patterns of connections observed, a future research program including seven testable research propositions is proposed.

Two studies in the context of English‐French relations in Québec suggest that individuals who strongly identify with a group derive the individual‐level costs and benefits that drive expectancy‐value processes (rational decision‐making) from group‐level costs and benefits. In Study 1, high identifiers linked group‐ and individual‐level outcomes of conflict choices whereas low identifiers did not. Group‐level expectancy‐value processes, in Study 2, mediated the relationship between social identity and perceptions that collective action benefits the individual actor and between social identity and intentions to act. These findings suggest the rational underpinnings of identity‐driven political behavior, a relationship sometimes obscured in intergroup theory that focuses on cognitive processes of self‐stereotyping. But the results also challenge the view that individuals' cost‐benefit analyses are independent of identity processes. The findings suggest the importance of modeling the relationship of group and individual levels of expectancy‐value processes as both hierarchical and contingent on social identity processes.

Although the concept of groupthink (the extreme concurrence‐seeking tendency displayed by decision making groups), has been an influential one, empirical research has provided equivocal support for the groupthink model. In this paper, we review previous case and laboratory work on groupthink and identify empirical and theoretical inconsistencies. We then describe a model of groupthink as social identity maintenance (SIM) that is capable of reconciling these inconsistencies and summarize laboratory experiments that specifically test the SIM hypothesis. We use the model to suggest possible pitfalls of previous proposals for preventing groupthink when SIM pressures are operative. Finally, we suggest intervention strategies capable of mitigating groupthink due to SIM that have two objectives: (a) the reduction of pressures toward identity protection and (b) the stimulation of intellectual conflict.

This study examines employees of Australian firms engaged in sports sponsorship activity. Where the employee is aware of that sponsorship, we consider the ways in which the general beliefs and attitudes of employees towards sponsorship link to their specific attitudes towards the sponsorship activity of their employer and whether these attitudes may influence their behaviour within the organisation. A model linking employees' attitudes towards their employers' sponsorship activity, the creation of favourable attitudes towards working for that employer and behaviours that can benefit the employing organisation is tested and supported. Implications of results include: a stronger focus on using sports sponsorship for internal marketing purposes; involvement of employees in determining the sponsored activity or organisation; and reassessing the overall benefits that derive from sports sponsorship.

The unemployed are a heterogeneous group comprising the able and disabled, young and old, men and women, black and white, unskilled and highly skilled. It includes those who have only recently lost their jobs and those who have been out of work for many years, those who have lost their jobs for the first time and those who have a history of losing their jobs. It also includes young people who have never been employed since leaving full‐time education. These are just a few of the many dimensions along which this heterogeneity can be described. Activities which may help some segments of the unemployed population may be irrelevant to others. This article cannot hope to present an exhaustive treatment of all the possible ways forward. Given this caveat, however, a broad‐brush attempt will be made to examine some of the ways in which the unemployed can be helped, to identify the contribution the personnel manager can make to helping the unemployed, and to comment on the assumptions that underpin the various approaches discussed.

The authors propose that the nature of prejudice differs across cultures. A model is introduced that proposes that the interpersonal perspective associated with individualist cultures (Westerners) leads to interpersonal prejudices, whereas the intergroup perspective associated with collectivist cultures (Easterners) leads to intergroup prejudices. These prejudices, in turn, are argued to impact on the outcomes of individuals working in intercultural teams. An organisational diversity climate of openness fostered by diversity oriented HRM and the combined use of individualist and collectivist HRM policies and practices is proposed to minimize the negative effects of such prejudices can be minimized.

This paper outlines a theoretical framework for studying the integration of ethnically diverse workforces in public service organizations. Individual and work group characteristics are viewed as determinants of social identity and organizational identification. Social Identity theory suggests that individuals develop self‐concept through identification with salient groups, including ethnic groups and organizational roles. The extent to which these identifications are competitive or synergistic may depend upon organizational and work group characteristics and on organizational policies concerning selection, performance appraisal, and rewards. Cross‐functional teamwork may provide an integrative mechanism which can promote intergroup relations and encourage greater organizational commitment among an ethnically diverse workforce. Cross‐functional teams can contribute to reduced intergroup conflict and promote the development of organizational identification. The benefits of cross‐functional teams will be particularly important in situations where the workforce is diverse, but work groups are ethnically homogeneous.

Reports on the progress made and problems experienced by the University of Hull while working in conjunction with J.H. Turner to develop a prototype water‐powered robot.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of patriotism and identification with national players on identification with the NBA and, ultimately, with purchase intentions of league-related merchandise. Findings revealed that the interaction between patriotism and identification with national players was a significant predictor of identification with NBA, which in turn was a significant predictor of purchase intentions of league-related products. The moderated mediation model fit the data quite well and explained 44.5% of the variance in purchase intentions. Theoretical implications of the findings, as well as practical implications for sports managers, are discussed.

Using a four‐person email negotiation on a fictitious house‐sale as the context, this study explores the effects of (1) familiarity and similarity manipulations on agent‐agent relationships, and (2) the emotional attachments that novice agents and principals form and maintain over the course of a single negotiation. Results show that only agent‐agent pairs receiving both manipulations (similarity and familiarity) were uniquely more successful in achieving an agreement, and that positive feelings for novice agents begin aligned with the principal and end aligned with the other agent. This demonstrates that relationship‐building in the online environment may be easier for some partnerships than for others, and that the dual‐loyalty conflict facing agents seems to encourage one partnership being preferred to the other at any one point in time. Implications for theory and for email negotiations are discussed.