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The social identity approach has been dominant in describing the main psychological processes that come with mergers. The main storyline of social identity processes includes the aim of a positive self-concept, the categories that define oneself, and how these categories help to make sense of a particular situation. Three studies are reviewed that provided nuances to this storyline through combining the social identity approach with the sensemaking approach. In these cases, the organization members –so to speak – improvise on the standard script of the social identity approach in the ways they made sense of the merger and how they responded. The consequences of such a mixture of social identity and sensemaking approaches for managing mergers are discussed in terms of sensemaking, sensegiving, sensebreaking, and sensehiding.

Religious institutions can affect organizational practices when employees bring their religious commitments and practices into the workplace. But those religious commitments function in the midst of other organizational factors that influence the working out of employees’ religious commitments. This process can generate varying outcomes in organizational contexts, ranging from a heightened effect of religious commitment on employee behavior to a negligible or nonexistent influence of religion on employee behavior. Relying on social identity theory and schematic social cognition as unifying frameworks for the study of religious behavior, we develop a theoretically informed approach to understanding how and why the religious beliefs, commitments and practices employees bring to work have varying behavioral impacts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between “social identities” and “innovation as a collective act”, specifically how multiple social identity processes construct, reconstruct and revise organisational identity, and create positive commitment and motivation for collaborative innovation (co‐innovation).

The paper adopted an inductive theory building from cases (particularly, theory building from a singular case) methodology. As the purpose of the research is to develop theory and not to test it, theoretical sampling was used. The particular case was specifically chosen because the business – a successful co‐operative for over 30 years – enables the investigation of organisational identity construction and development on different levels including intra‐ and inter‐organisational interactions.

While still leaving scope for the readers to make interpretations and conclusions from the case themselves, the study suggests some general conclusions drawn from the interrelationship of key concepts in the case, and from the subsequent model of evolving multiple social identity processes for co‐innovation that emerged. These conclusions may not only broaden “the social identity approach to organisations” and “organisational innovation”, but also link their underlying theories.

The case explains the phenomena in a particular social system, namely a co‐operative business with a common purpose. The co‐operative model can be associated with organisations with poor democratic governance and accountability. The ultimate success of the case depended on the ability of the organisation and its members to construct and maintain a common organisational identity of innovation and to innovate collectively.

This paper extends “the social identity approach to organisations” and “organisational innovation” by developing a model, inductively sourced from a “real‐life” case, for explaining the construction, reconstruction or revision of social identities that result from the reciprocal relationship between co‐innovating organisations. The proposed model suggests an evolutionary (rather than a revolutionary) framework for the presentation of co‐innovation as a product of social identity construction.

Aims to illustrate how the use of a social identity approach can help to refine our understanding of how organizational professionals experience the introduction of managerialism and the incorporation of managing specialist roles.

Draws on theories of social identity and social categorization to examine the process by which clinical directors tackle and assign meaning to their managing roles. Interviews were conducted with a sample of current and previous clinical directors over a five year period. Variations in doctors’ responses were explained by a range of self enhancement strategies that emerged to deal with tensions between prepared management identities and actual role experiences.

Reveals the importance of multiple self‐enhancement strategies as a way for doctors to protect self definitions in failing identity situations where immediate exit from a new role is not feasible. Concludes that a greater use of social identity and social categorization theory may add much to general explanations of how varied stances towards management interventions emerge and develop among professional workers.

Points to how we might achieve a deeper understanding of the diverse ways that the organizational professionals experience the introduction of managerialism and the incorporation of managing the specialist roles.

This study aims to investigate how British Pakistani people talk about their social identity, in the context of mental health, and how this shapes their experiences and perceptions of care delivered by the National Health Service, UK.

Eight narrative interviews were conducted among members of the Pakistani community living in a city in the UK. The data were analyzed using a narrative analysis approach using “social identity” as a theoretical lens.

Considering Pakistani service users as a single social entity, and responding with generic approaches in meeting their mental health needs, may not be helpful in achieving equitable treatment. Study participants reject a simple conceptualization of race and ethnicity and how a response based upon stereotypes is woefully inadequate. The study revealed that people from one ethnic or national background cannot be assumed to have a fixed social identity.

This study broadens understanding of how people from a single ethnic background may construct and view their social identities markedly different to others from the same ethnic group. This has implications for service providers in understanding how their clients’ social identity is treated and understood in practice.

This study analyses how media choices can be used in the construction of social identity.

We approach the topic through the analytical lens of identity work. We present a case study of a community of IT students during their first year of studies, including participant observation, focus groups, and surveys. We focus on what community means to the individuals located within a specific social context. This allows us to examine ICT use and adoption holistically as a key aspect of community formation and identity maintenance.

We depict everyday interactions in which the choice of an older information communication technology, Internet Relay Chat, serves participants in their quest for social belongingness in their community and in distinguishing the community positively from other social groups. This chapter describes how identity work is accomplished by adopting and valuing shared, social views about users versus non-users, including: (1) emphasizing the skills and efforts needed for using Internet Relay Chat (IRC), (2) undermining the use of other technologies, and (3) deploying and referencing IRC jargon and “insider humor” within the broader community.

By examining online and offline social interactions in a defined community over time, we expose the process of identity work in a holistic manner. Our analysis emphasizes the underlying process where media choices can be harnessed to fulfill the need to identify with groups and feel affirmed in one’s claims to both personal and social identity.

Purpose – To develop a new model of restorative reparation that attempts to capture the dynamic role of shared identity perceptions.

Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on recent advances in restorative justice theory (Wenzel, Okimoto, Feather, & Platow, 2008), we explore the theoretical proposition that a greater understanding of the identity relations between victims, offenders, and the groups in which they are embedded is key to understanding a victim's underlying motives toward justice, and thus, predicting when victims will react favorably to restorative justice processes and prefer them over traditional retributive justice interventions.

Findings – We argue that a perceived shared identity between the victim and the offender determines the extent to which the victim understands the transgression as requiring a revalidation of the rules, values, or morals undermined by the offense. Moreover, we propose that these identity relations are dynamic in that they both affect and are affected by the experience of injustice. Thus, identity is also shaped by the transgression itself through, inter alia, processes associated with positive social identity maintenance. Importantly, these shifts in identity determine how injustice victims are likely to respond to constructive approaches to conflict resolution such as restorative justice.

Originality/value – We offer a series of testable hypotheses aimed at engendering future research in the domain of constructive justice restoration in groups. Moreover, this work suggests that to develop effective resolution strategies, we must consider how an injustice event shapes the relations between the affected parties over time rather than simply assuming identity relations are static.

Based on self‐determination theory and social identity theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of social identity in buffering the effect of working pressure on the identified motivation (a kind of self‐determined motivation).

This was an experimental study. In a simulated work setting, the study operationalized social identity as having participants who perceived their belonging to one particular working unit, and working pressure as task deadline. A 2 (social identity salience: salient vs not salient)× 2 (task deadline: deadline vs no deadline) between‐subjects experiment was designed.

As expected, participants under the condition of task deadline reported less identified motivation, both at the individual and group levels, than did those under the condition without task deadline. Participants under the condition of social identity salient reported more group‐based identified motivation than did those under the condition of social identity not‐salient. Faced with task deadline, participants whose social identity was salient showed more group‐based identified motivation than did those whose social identity was not salient.

This study was carried out in a simulated working situation, which may limit its ecological validity. Future studies have a focus on what will happen in real working contexts and continue to extend the current study theoretically.

The paper's findings suggest that managers motivate employees by emphasizing their perception of group‐membership (i.e. social identity). This strategy was consistent with traditional Chinese management thoughts and values.

The paper is original in bridging social identity theory and self‐determination theory, and putting forward a group‐level‐based extension of self‐determination theory. The paper establishes the causal relationships among social identity, task deadline and identifies motivation by using an experimental approach.

The Scottish Parliament has recently formed Community Health Partnerships (CHPs), in which health and social care providers come together within a unified organisational framework. This paper aims to assess the extent to which employees identify with their profession and whether professional identity poses a significant barrier to multi‐disciplinary, inter‐organisational partnership.

The study adopted a mixed methodology approach. A survey of all CHP staff was conducted, four months after the CHP was created and obtained a 31 per cent response rate. Additionally, to obtain an in‐depth understanding of the partnership, 26 interviews were conducted with senior and middle level managers and professional representatives.

A strong professional identity in the health and social care context was evident while the partnership vision, in contrast, lacked clarity. Therefore under these circumstances individuals' sense of occupation has been heightened due to perceived attempts to erode their professional identity, and modifications to their sense of “self” have not been challenged by a strong partnership ethos.

Managers face a deep‐rooted cultural based challenge where individuals strongly identify with their profession rather than the ethos of the partnership, which impedes full integration. Managers have a “balancing act” of addressing structural and processual change within the integration agenda, without losing sight of the outcomes in terms of service delivery and improving health and wellbeing.

This paper examines the implications of a new major health policy change that aims to integrate health and social care. In addition, the study unravels the complex issue of professional identity in this context.

The purpose of the present research was to examine the impact of identity leadership on employees' well-being mediated by team identification and trust in the leader.

In study 1, N = 192 employees participated in a cross-sectional online survey measuring identity leadership, team identification, trust in the leader and well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, work engagement, burnout). In study 2, N = 72 university students participated in a vignette study that manipulated high/low identity leadership and tested its effect on team identification and trust in the leader.

In study 1, identity leadership predicted higher team identification, trust in the leader and well-being of employees. Team identification mediated the positive relationship of identity leadership with both job satisfaction and work engagement, while trust in the leader mediated the negative relationship of identity leadership with burnout. In study 2, team identification and trust in the leader were significantly higher in the high identity leadership condition.

The findings are consistent with the few existing studies on the positive effects of identity leadership. However, due to the correlational nature of the data in study 1, future longitudinal field research is needed to support the current findings and further establish causality for the model as a whole.

Identity leadership seems to be promising to increase well-being among employees. Thus, leadership development programs to foster identity leadership and collective identity should be implemented in organizations and further tested with respect to well-being.

This research contributes to an emerging body of research on the social identity approach to leadership and supports the recent claims that social identity might be one of the links between leader behavior and well-being of employees. Moreover, this study is among the first to investigate and experimentally test the underlying mechanisms of identity leadership.