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The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the personality trait of desire for control over others (DFCO) matters to team leadership and performance, and how commitment to the leader mediates this relationship. Furthermore, the authors study whether intergroup competition moderates this indirect relationship.

The authors test hypotheses for mediation and moderation using a sample of 78 groups and their leaders. Commitment to the leader and intergroup competition were measured at the team member level, while DFCO and team performance was rated by the team leader. Bootstrapping was used to assess the significance of the (conditional) indirect effects.

The results show that leader’s DFCO does not relate to team performance through commitment to the leader. Leader’s DFCO only relates negatively to team performance through commitment to the leader when the team operates in a context with little or moderate intergroup competition. In a highly competitive environment, however, leader’s DFCO does little damage to team performance.

This research is the first study to focus on DFCO as a personality trait of a group leader. In doing so, it adds to the continuing debate about leader personality and context, as well as the ongoing study on how subordinates respond to different levels of control over decisions in groups.

With age diversity in the workplace becoming increasingly prevalent, the conflict between younger and older workers can be pervasive because of their increased interpersonal tensions from heterogeneous interactions. Adopting an identity-based approach, this study aims to examine the causes, underlying mechanisms and specific strategies used to manage such conflict. It was hypothesized that there is an interaction effect between age-group identification and organizational identification on conflict strategies and that this relationship can be explained by the mediating role of motivational goal orientation.

A total of 380 clerical workers in Hong Kong, aged 19–65, responded to two hypothetical scenarios about conflict with a younger and an older worker using a structured questionnaire on social identity, motivational goal orientation and conflict strategies. Moderated mediation analyzes were performed to test the hypothesized conditional indirect effects.

Results showed that workers who identified with the organization emphasized less on independent goals (with a younger opposing party) and more on cooperative goals (with an older opposing party) when they did not perceive an age-group differentiation, and thus, they were more likely to respond in a way that de-escalates the conflict, including the use of integrating, obliging and compromising strategies.

Extending age-related conflict research beyond identifying generational differences, this study highlights the role of social identity and suggests that employers and managers should strengthen employees’ organizational identification and build a fair work environment that facilitates positive interaction between younger and older workers.

This paper examines the effect of intergroup competition on intragroup cooperation. Three experiments are reviewed. The first experiment establishes that intergroup competition can effectively increase intragroup cooperation in a laboratory setting where symmetric players make binary decisions in one‐shot dilemma games. The second experiment shows that this constructive effect of intergroup competition is generalizable to a real‐life setting in which asymmetric players make continuous decisions in an ongoing interaction. The third experiment demonstrates that the increase in intragroup cooperation can be accounted for at least in part by motivational, rather than structural, effects of the intergroup competition. Theoretical and practical issues concerning the applications of these findings are discussed.

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.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between leader group prototypicality and intergroup conflict, as well as its mechanisms and contextual factors using the social identity theory.

The research model was empirically tested using multi-phase, multi-source and multilevel survey data in China. The final sample consisted of 75 group leaders and 231 group members. Multilevel structural equation modelling and a Monte Carlo simulation were used for hypothesis testing.

The results showed that leader group prototypicality would engender intergroup conflict via intergroup distinctiveness. Further, leaders’ benchmarking behaviour moderated this indirect effect. In particular, leader group prototypicality resulted in higher intergroup distinctiveness and intergroup conflict, only when the leaders’ benchmarking behaviour was higher rather than lower.

First, this study addresses the question of whether leader group prototypicality would lead to intergroup conflict to provide theoretical and empirical insights to supplement extant literature. Second, the study advances the understanding of mechanisms (intergroup distinctiveness) and the consequences (intergroup conflict) of leader group prototypicality in an intergroup context. Third, the study shows that leaders’ benchmarking behaviour moderates the effect of leader group prototypicality on intergroup conflict through intergroup distinctiveness. As such, the findings are of value to future management practice by offering precise, practical interventions to manage the intergroup conflict caused by leader group prototypicality.

This paper highlights the opportunity to investigate relations between the marketing and sales departments of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. Drawing on empirical results from social psychology, the authors develop a framework for exploring the social psychological causes and effects of intergroup relations in FMCG marketing. This conceptual model integrates two social psychological theories, the realistic group conflict theory, and the social identity theory. As a development to previous applications of these theories, the model extends beyond the social psychological effects of intergroup relations to consider the implications for organizational effectiveness. A number of research propositions to guide future research are also developed, and the paper concludes with a discussion of managerial and future research implications.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between perceived social identity as an “older worker” and attitudes towards early retirement and commitment to work.

Survey data were obtained from 352 workers aged 50‐59. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to test the influence of social identity after controlling for demographics, organizational variables and work‐to‐family conflict.

The results show that self‐categorization as an “older worker” is related to negative attitudes towards work (stronger desire to retire early, stronger inclination towards intergenerational competition) while the perception that the organization does not use age as a criterion for distinguishing between workers supports positive attitudes towards work (e.g. higher value placed on work).

This study is cross‐sectional and does not allow conclusions about causality between intergroup processes and attitudes towards works. Future research should develop longitudinal designs to verify that social identity as an “older worker” does induce elders' attitudes at work.

Retirement is usually considered as an individual and opportunistic decision. This research highlights its social dimensions and suggests that managers should pay attention to ageism at work and its potential effects not only on the withdrawal process but also on the quality of life in the workplace.

This study examined the relationships among ethnocentrism, group cohesion, and constituent pressure in either competitive or collaborative directions within the context of a complex simulation of intergroup conflict. The simulation elicited both a value and an economic conflict over scarce resources and their development in which pairs of groups negotiated through representatives to reach a settlement. The results from 32 four‐person groups of college males were based on self‐report questionnaires and behavioral codings from videotapes of the simulation sessions. With the questionnaire data, ethnocentrism, group cohesion, and constituent pressure were significantly related at three different measurement points and when averaged over the entire simulation. Behavioral ratings of ethnocentrism were positively correlated with behavioral measures of constituent pressure to compete and negatively with pressure to collaborate. These results provide empirical support for the effects of cohesion and ethnocentrism on conflict management behavior in line with realistic group conflict theory.

This paper aims to study vertical gender segregation, which persists even in the fields where women are represented at junior levels. Academia is an example. Individual performance and lack of a critical mass do not fully explain the problem. Thus, this paper adopted an intergroup perspective (i.e. social identity and competition theories) to study how a majority (i.e. men) can influence the advancement of a minority (i.e. women).

The paper investigated promotions from associate to full professor in Italy. The original data set included all promotions from 2013 to 2016. To study intergroup dynamics, individual-level variables were analysed together with structural factors, such as gender representation and availability of resources.

The effect of gender representation was significant in that promotions were more likely when full professor ranks within academic institutions were men-dominated and associate professor ranks were women-dominated. Concurrently, the analysis of individual-level variables supported the existence of discrimination against women. The paper argues that the majority grants more promotions under the pressure of change; however, this does not contrast with discrimination at the individual level.

The paper focused only on one country. However, the framework can be applied in other contexts and used to study segregation based on factors other than gender.

This study explored gender segregation from a new perspective, highlighting the importance of the interplay between individual and structural factors. This interplay might be one of the causes of the slow progress of gender equality.

This paper compares the immediate impact of an outdoor management development programme run in two different formats. The original OMD programme which was evaluated had a competitive format with individuals participating in teams on a variety of outdoor challenges in order to develop personal team‐working skills. On each activity the teams were awarded points depending on how successful they were judged to have been, so that one team “won” and one team “lost”. Evaluation of this programme indicated that those in losing teams felt they had learned less from the experience compared to those in winning teams. In consequence, the format of the programme was changed so that the competition between the teams was abolished. Evaluation results indicated a much more positive impact for all participants. These results are discussed in terms of how the different programme formats encouraged different types of review processes.