Interrelation of group, micro-group and interpersonal identities of employees in production groups

Abstract

The article represents the results of mathematical and statistical analysis of the links between the levels of the identity of employees (group, micro-group and interpersonal) by three components (cognitive, affective and behavioral) in 37 industrial groups with expertise in different fields. The significant linear relationship between micro-group and interpersonal identity (for all components), high linear relationship between group identity and micro-group identity (only for affective component) and the lack of linear relationship between the components of inter- personal and group identity are revealed. Higher influence of group identity on micro-group (for all components) and interpersonal identity (for cognitive and behavioral components) is found out in the totality of intercorrelation between group, micro-group and interpersonal identities. Non-linear relationship between group and micro-group identity for all components is revealed. This non-linear relation indicates that increase in expressiveness of one of the components of group iden- tity leads to decrease in expressiveness of the respective component of micro-group identity. This effect occurs until definite moment, after which, on the contrary, further reinforcement of the components of group identity leads to the increase in expressiveness of micro-group identity. These established consistent patterns are interpreted in the article.

Multiple Identifications of Employees in an Organization: Salience and Relationships of Foci and Dimensions

“…Conversely, the identification of workers with structural units may be the basis for their interpersonal ID. These data are consistent with the studies that found associations among some social ID foci [ 15 , 34 , 54 ] and between some social IDs and interpersonal IDs [ 37 , 63 ].…”

“…A significant positive linear relationship has been found between organizational ID and group ID [ 15 , 34 , 50 ], between organizational ID and sub-organizational ID [ 54 ], between micro-group ID and ID with peers [ 37 ], and between organizational ID and ID with the supervisor [ 35 , 36 , 63 ]. In particular, it was shown that the identification of employees who tend to follow the lead of the leader plays a decisive role in the subsequent formation of collective identifications—organizational and group IDs [ 35 ].…”

“…Third, also of interest are relationships (type and strength): (a) among social IDs—organizational, sub-organizational, group, and micro-group; b) between each social ID, on the one hand, and interpersonal and personal IDs, on the other. Researchers either theorize about the relationship between social and personal IDs [ 32 ], or in empirical research, occasionally pay attention to the relationship between organizational and group IDs [ 15 , 34 ] and, in very rare cases, to the relationship between organizational (group) and interpersonal IDs [ 35 , 36 ], among group, micro-group and interpersonal IDs [ 37 ]. However, a complete and empirically grounded picture of the relationships among all ID foci for each of their dimensions is virtually non-existent.…”

Dimensions of Identification in the Workgroup and Employees’ Contributions to Collaborative Activities

“…All the identifications-interpersonal, micro-group, and group-comprise cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. An earlier study of working groups shows that (a) micro-group identification is significantly stronger in all components in comparison with interpersonal and group ones (Sidorenkov et al, 2014); (b) there is a significant linear correlation between interpersonal identification and micro-group identification in all components, non-linear correlation is registered between micro-group and group identifications, whereas there is not any correlations between interpersonal and group identifications (Sidorenkov & Dorofeev, 2016); (c) micro-group identification in all components is significantly positively related with some indicators of group performance, whereas interpersonal and group identifications are not significantly related with them (Sidorenkov et al, 2014). These findings implicitly indicate that different identifications and their components can relate with behaviors (including OCB) and group characteristics in different ways.…”