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This paper aims to examine the impact of perceived negativity against the ingroup on delinquency in disadvantaged social groups. It is based on assumptions from labeling theory and social identity theory.

The authors hypothesized that negative metastereotypes towards the outgroup “majority society” (i.e. the perception of the outgroup holding negative stereotypes against the ingroup) would enhance delinquent behavior. Based on recent findings from research on self‐esteem and aggression, the authors further hypothesized that self‐esteem would moderate this effect, namely that delinquency‐enhancement would be strongest for individuals high in self‐esteem. The hypotheses were tested in a sample of incarcerated adolescents (n=225) and a sample of educationally disadvantaged adolescents (n=92), respectively.

Negative metastereotypes towards the “majority society” are positively related to delinquent behavior. This effect is particularly strong when disadvantaged individuals' positive self‐regard is high.

This research gives important, new insights on the basis of cross‐sectional, correlative data. Future research should aim to corroborate the findings by use of experimental or longitudinal designs.

The paper shows that the perception of negative stereotypes against one's disadvantaged ingroup in society is a risk factor for delinquent behavior. It furthermore highlights how personality differences in self‐esteem influence this relationship. The research builds a bridge between criminological labeling theory and social‐psychological social identity theory.

Social loafing is described in the literature as a frequent problem reducing individuals' performance when working in groups. This paper aims to utilize the social identity approach and proposes that under conditions of heightened group salience social loafing can be reduced and turned into social laboring (i.e. increased performance).

Two experimental studies are conducted to examine the impact of participant's group membership salience on task performance. In Study 1, school teachers work either in coactive or in collective working conditions on brainstorming tasks. In Study 2, participants perform both a brainstorming task and a motor task.

The results show social laboring effects. As predicted, participants in the high salient group conditions outperform participants in the low salient group conditions and the coactive individual condition.

The results indicate that rather than individuating group members or tasks to overcome social loafing, managers can increase group performance by focusing on group members' perceptions of their groups as important and salient.

The studies presented in this paper show that social identity theory and self categorization theory can fruitfully be applied to the field of group performance. The message of these studies for applied settings is that collective work in groups must not necessarily negatively impact performance, i.e. social loafing. By heightening the salience of group memberships groups can even outperform coactively working individuals.

This chapter reviews recent theoretical developments and empirical research, to examine the causes and consequences of identity processes in relation to collaboration in work groups and group performance. Our central proposition is that identification in work groups can have beneficial as well as detrimental effects, depending on the nature of the shared identity, and the content of distinctive group norms. First, we examine some of the complications stemming from the fact that identification in work settings typically involves groups that can be defined at different levels of inclusiveness and where people can be seen as having multiple cross-cutting identities. Then, we move on to show that processes of identification affect the way people view their co-workers and supervisors, causing the same objective behavior to be interpreted and responded to in a fundamentally different way. Finally, we examine how normative expectations about prototypical group behavior determine group processes and group outcomes, with the consequence that identification and commitment can affect work motivation and collective performance in different ways, depending on the content of distinctive group norms.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the brand identity management process from the employees’ perspective. Specifically, it explores how the different dimensions of brand identity management influence employees’ attitudinal and behavioural responses.

An empirical study was carried out to test the proposed model. The sample consisted of 297 employees in the UK financial services sector. Hypothesis testing was conducted using partial least square regression.

Results indicate that effective brand identity management can increase employees’ identification with their organisations. Specifically, the most influential dimension is the employee-client focus. Results also show that organisational identification is a key variable to explain job satisfaction, word-of-mouth and brand citizenship behaviour.

This study focusses on the UK financial sector. To explore the generalisability of results, replication studies among other sectors and countries would be useful. The cross-sectional nature of the study also limits its causal inference.

This study shows the importance of brand identity management to foster positive employee attitudes and actions that go beyond their job responsibilities. The model developed may help organisations analyse the impact of managerial actions, monitoring the potential effects of changes in brand identity management amongst employees.

Although numerous conceptual frameworks highlight the importance of brand identity management, empirical studies in this area are scarce. The current work extends previous research by empirically analysing the effects of the dimensions of brand identity management from the employees’ perspective.