The Rocky Road from I to We : Retracing the Emergence of Members’ Team Identification

Abstract

Members’ identification has long been considered an important phenomenon in teams. Research has shown that individuals’ team identification may lead to a number of desirable member behaviors, including the willingness to engage in activities that benefit the group (e.g., Dutton, Dukerich, & Harquail, 1994; Haslam, Powell, & Turner, 2000), the readiness to communicate and cooperate (e.g., Dukerich, Golden, & Shortell, 2002), loyalty (van Vugt & Hart, 2004), and team learning (Van der Vegt & Bunderson, 2005). Yet, despite the importance of identification, the knowledge about its emergence and contingencies has remained rather limited. The research presented in this dissertation contributes to a better understanding of team identification (TI) by specifying the cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes involved in TI emergence, their mutual relation, as well as central contingency factors that pertain to an individual’s identification path. Based on interview and observational data stemming from members of seven heterogeneous teams in the context of UN peacebuilding operations, the thesis presents a grounded theory analysis of TI emergence. It shows that when individuals become members of a team, they engage in processes of identity enactment, team experience sensemaking, team outcome evaluation, and identity narrative adaption. Thereby, they either choose a withdrawal, reactive, or active convergence mode to reconcile the team’s identity with their existing identity narrative. As a result of this convergence, members may subsequently develop either negative, temporary, or deep-structured identification. Furthermore, seven contingency factors are shown to influence how the members’ TI emergence unfolds. On the team level, these are, (1) the nature of the team’s collective identity, (2) a team’s performance, (3) the degree of interaction and communication in a team, (4) a team’s scope of autonomy, and (5) team leadership. On the level of the system in which a team is embedded, we found (6) environmental hostility and favorability, as well as (7) the collective system culture to constitute strong influences of the emergence of members’ TI. Finally, the thesis provides tentative insights into the temporal sequence of TI emergence and shows that it is likely to emerge in repeating cycles and follow certain patterns. As such, the present work provides important insights for practitioners and scholars alike