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

Abstract

Leadership often involves providing leadership to a group that is structured into separate subgroups that have distinctive self-contained identities that are cherished by their members. In this respect, leadership can be characterized as intergroup leadership. The challenge of intergroup leadership is to forge a superordinate identity that does not erase or blur the subgroups’ identity boundaries and create a threat to the subgroups’ social identity distinctiveness, as such identity threat can provoke intersubgroup conflict that fragments the superordinate group. According to intergroup-leadership theory, successful intergroup leaders need to construct, promote, and exemplify an intergroup relational identity that preserves subgroups’ distinctiveness and celebrates that distinctiveness and intersubgroup cooperation as fundamental aspects of subgroup and superordinate-group identity. In this article, we describe intergroup-leadership theory (which applies to groups of all sizes and complexions), summarize empirical support for its main tenets, and outline extensions and future directions.

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

“…This atmosphere of inter‐subgroup conflict can make it very difficult to defuse hostility and (re)build bridges of cooperation and common cause. However, recent research suggests that a particular form of leadership (intergroup leadership) and identity messaging (intergroup relational identity) may help dismantle intergroup barriers and integrate subgroups without creating subgroup identity threat that amplifies defensiveness and hostility (e.g., Hogg & Rast, 2022).…”

“…I draw on my program of research on the motivational role of uncertainty in social identity processes (uncertainty‐identity theory: e.g., Hogg, 2007, 2012, 2021a) and societal fragmentation and factionalism (e.g., Hogg, 2014, 2021b), and on how intergroup leadership may combat this process (intergroup leadership theory: e.g., Hogg, 2015; Hogg & Rast, 2022; Hogg et al., 2012a), to address two questions that speak directly to the conference theme: (a) what motivates people to embrace and sustain exclusionary ethnocentric identities, and (b) what can be done to inhibit this and facilitate societal connections and integration across deep identity divisions. Broadly framed by social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986; Turner et al., 1987; also see Abrams & Hogg, 2010; Hogg, 2018a; Hogg & Abrams, 1988) these motivational and social influence analyses describe the role of self and social identity uncertainty in building “walls”, and the palliative potential of identity messaging by “leadership” in tearing down those walls.…”

“…Clearly leadership and identity messaging play a significant role in fanning partisan separatism; but perhaps appropriate leadership and messaging can combat destructive fragmentation by breaking down walls between (sub)groups. This idea has recently been explored by intergroup‐leadership theory (Hogg, 2015; Hogg & Rast, 2022; Hogg & Rast, in press; Hogg et al., 2012a). The key premise is that practically all leadership is intergroup leadership—a challenging situation where a leader leads a group that is structured into separate subgroups with distinct self‐contained identities that are cherished by their members as central aspects of their identity.…”

“…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).…”

Introduction to Michael A. Hogg's SPSSI Kurt Lewin Award Address

“…Mike's research has spanned a vast array of phenomena, ranging from the nature of group cohesion (e.g., Hogg, 1993), to the role of language as a signifier of identity, and from leadership (e.g., Hogg & Rast, 2022;Hogg et al, 2012) to extremism (e.g., Hogg, 2014), from fundamental motivational elements of group life (e.g., Abrams & Hogg, 1988) to the cognitive determinants of the content of identity. He has studied the way that minorities can influence majorities (e.g., Hogg, 2010), how social identity motivates social inclusion and exclusion and how people manage the uncertainty in their lives through their psychological attachments to different groups (e.g., Hogg, 2021aHogg, , 2021b.…”