Battling ingroup bias with effective intergroup leadership

Abstract

Intergroup conflict and bias often occur between subgroups nested within a superordinate group. In these situations, the leader of the superordinate group plays a key role, as an intergroup leader, in reducing conflict. To be effective, an intergroup leader should avoid (1) threatening the subgroups' distinctive identities, and (2) being viewed by one or both groups as 'one of them' rather than 'one of us'. Intergroup leadership theory (Acad Manag Rev, 37, 2012a, 232) posits intergroup leaders can improve subgroup relations by promoting an intergroup relational identity. Two studies (Ns = 178 and 223) tested whether an out-subgroup or in-subgroup leader could improve intergroup attitudes, even among strong subgroup identifiers, by promoting either an intergroup relational identity or a collective identity. We hypothesized an interaction of these variables demonstrating the effectiveness of an intergroup relational identity message for an out-subgroup leader in lessening ingroup bias, especially among strong subgroup identification. Our results, and a meta-analytic summary across both studies (N = 401), supported our hypothesis and intergroup leadership theory, demonstrating an intergroup relational identity is an effective strategy for improving intergroup relations.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

TMT entrepreneurial passion diversity and firm innovation performance: the mediating role of knowledge creation

“…Previous research has found that extreme differences in identity can increase TMT members’ sensitivity to within-group conflict, worsen interpersonal relationships and reduce opportunities to establish a common space for knowledge-sharing (Mitchell et al , 2011; Mitchell and Boyle, 2015). Moreover, when TMT members strongly identify with their areas of passion, the rigidity of self-identification may exaggerate the process of in-subgroup bias, which leads TMT members to favor and trust in-subgroup others, reducing the range and depth of knowledge exchange in firms (Carton and Cummings, 2013; Kershaw et al , 2021). Consequently, TMTs with high entrepreneurial passion focus variety will engage in a lower level of knowledge exchange.…”

Walls between groups: Self‐uncertainty, social identity, and intergroup leadership

“…Success rests on accurate messaging and persuasive rhetoric, but is also facilitated by embodiment of the identity and being viewed as an impartial and trustworthy boundary spanner. Intergroup leadership theory is in its infancy but has already attracted some empirical support (e.g., Kershaw et al., 2021; Rast et al., 2018; also see Hogg & Rast, 2022).…”

Intergroup Leadership: The Challenge of Successfully Leading Fractured Groups and Societies

“…In other direct tests of intergroup-leadership theory (e.g., Kershaw et al, 2021aKershaw et al, , 2021b, we have used very similar paradigms, procedures, manipulations, and measures. We followed up the studies just described to compare not only messaging promoting an intergroup relational identity and messaging promoting a collective identity, but also messaging promoting a dual identity (i.e., subgroup and superordinate-group identities were emphasized simultaneously; Kershaw et al, 2021b).…”

“…We also followed up on our previous work (Rast et al, 2018) by conducting two studies ( N = 401 Canadian students) focusing on how leaders promoting an intergroup relational identity may be able to improve subgroup relations by reducing in-group bias (Kershaw et al, 2021a). We predicted that even participants who identified strongly with their in-subgroup would have less bias against the out-subgroup if out-subgroup leaders promoted an intergroup relational identity rather than a collective identity.…”