This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Sluss, D. M. Articles by Ashforth, B. E.

How Relational and Organizational Identification Converge: Processes and Conditions

Department of Management, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208
Department of Management, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287
dmsluss{at}moore.sc.edu
blake.ashforth{at}asu.edu

Separate research literatures focus on the individual's identification with relationships, groups, organizations, and other workplace targets. We propose that identification with one referent may converge with or extend to another, thus suggesting the potential for more parsimonious perspectives on identification. We illustrate this argument by examining how the subordinate's identification with the subordinate-manager role relationship ("relational identification") (RI) may converge with the subordinate's organizational identification (OI). We propose that convergence occurs through cognitive, affective, and behavioral mechanisms, including social influence, anthropomorphization, personalization, affect transfer, and behavioral sensemaking. We also propose that convergence is conditioned by task interdependence (inherent in the role relationship) and prototypicality (of the relational other). We discuss the implications of our convergence model for future research on multiple identifications.

Key Words: relational identification; organizational identification; work relationships; role relationships