W7 - wider relationships

Question 1

the need to belong

Answer 1

• humans have a need to belong
• Baumeister and Leary
• humans have a drive to form long lasting, positive relationships
• involves 2 criteria:
  1. need for positive frequent interaction
  2. these interactions must take place in a stable framework concerned about the welfare of each other
• lack of belonging can cause severe deprivation
• research shows from B+L people from social bonds quickly and resist losing these attachments even when there’s no reason to maintain it

Question 2

implications for the workplace

Answer 2

• belonging and relationships at work lead to higher job satisfaction/ motivation / commitments / creativity
• employees being close to their team gives them a sense of relatedness and belonging
• employees being close with their leader satisfies belonging needs as well (high LMX) sense of value
• employees may be frustrated if they do not feel part of the group (demotivating) - according to Maslow belongingness is a psychological need that must be met if not it can lead to stress / deviance

Question 3

the need to belong and the future of work

Answer 3

• being connected to others is associated with well being and optimal functioning
• in the future - can be hard to belong when working remotely not physically working can lack the context of a team of real colleagues at work.

Question 4

optimal distinctiveness

Answer 4

• Brewer 1991
• people have two basic opposing needs
• a need to belong that motivates our immersion in social groups;
• and a need for differentiation from others.
• satisfying these two needs would be optimal psychological functioning
• empirical support that individuals prefer groups which both their needs for belonging and uniqueness are met

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Question 5

social identity theory (look at diagram)

Answer 5

• our sense of who we are as individuals is influenced by the group we belong to
• a person might act differently in varying social contexts according to the groups they belong to

Question 6

self esteem

Answer 6

• one source of self esteem is the social groups we belong to
• if our social groups are seen as high status then we are viewed as that as well
• tend to favour our in group and hold more negative views of the outgroup
• 3 processes that evaluate us or them (in / outgroup)
  1. social categorisation
  2. social identification
  3. social comparison

Question 7

social categorisation

Answer 7

• we categorise objects in order to understand and identify them we do this with people as well
• we find out things about ourselves and others by knowing what categories we belong to

Question 8

social identification

Answer 8

• adopt the identity of the group we have categorised ourselves as belonging to
• there will be an emotional significance to your identification with a group and your self esteem will become bound with group membership

Question 9

social comparison

Answer 9

• compare the group we are in to other groups
• once two groups identify themselves as rivals they are forced to compete in order to maintain the members self esteem

Question 10

multiple groups and group salience

Answer 10

• we all belong to multiple social groups
• different groups have different levels of significance and some we are more aware of in different contexts (salient)

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Question 11

applications of social identity theory

Answer 11

• frequently used in marketing, brand identity which customers try and identify with
• there are adverts that appeal to particular genders, nationality etc.
• individuals also decide whether to be apart of a particular group depending on how it is advertised
• companies normally create an outgroup to compare products (Apple created IOS and their feud with android started)
• built the social identity of Mac owners

Question 12

social identification in the workplace

Answer 12

• organisations are keen for their employees to identify as a member of the organisation
• employees that integrate their organisational membership with who they ate have high performance and contribute to the org

Question 13

how to build organisational identification

Answer 13

• it is vital to understand how orgs can encourage employees to identify with them

1. status - people desire a positive self image so identify more with high status groups - employees are more likely o identify with orgs with high status
2. size - employees are more likely to identify with small orgs (large orgs = less inclusiveness and no uniqueness - vice versa)
3. similarity - more likely to identify to a group they are similar to
4. salience - orgs try build salience with external cues such as uniforms and logos, mote obvious org membership is the more likely identification will be salient

Question 14

social identity theory and teams

Answer 14

• employees not only work for orgs but in teams within the org
• employees are more likely to identify with their work team than the org:
  1. optimal distinctiveness theory - people want to fit in and stand out at the same time this is best achieved by belonging to smaller groups in the org

2. familiarity and similarity - people tend to identify with groups which they see as similar to themselves and are familiar
3. self categorisation theory - seeing as employee are likely to interact with members of other teams than other orgs their workgroup membership would be more salient than the organisational membership

Question 15

downsides of identification

Answer 15

• over identification can lead to workaholism
• those who are strongly identified with their org perceive the orgs goals as their own
• make them work harder to achieve
• too much involvement van have mental and physical problems