The Importance Of Social Identity In Groups

We humans are social creatures with biological needs such as interpersonal connections and social interactions. Without any interpersonal connections and social interactions, people are going to have difficulties navigating through the world. Therefore, humans have the tendency to form groups as a way to provide each other with resources, a sense of belonging, emotional support, and knowledge. For example, people often rely on each other and collaborate with each other to accomplish tasks especially in work settings. Groups serve a purpose which varies depending on its group members and the social identity they see within the groups. However some groups are functional while others are not. As such, it is critical to investigate the factors that …show more content…
Having the shared achievement values will have a greater impact on the group than differences in personal values. Meeussen et al. (2014) also offered insights on how a leader can pull a work group together by inviting group members openly share the different views and develop the achievement values together. Haslam (2014) addressed the importance of social identity and how expression of group identity helps increase the satisfaction, performance, and engagement of the group members. Similar to Meeusseen et al. (2014), Haslam (2014) also addressed the importance of identifying common goals among the group members as a way to develop the social identity. In the study by Dennehy et al. (2014) it provided an implementation for assuaging the “social identity threats” (p. 585). Haslam (2014) addressed the power of social identity in group functioning and Dennehy et al. ( 2014) addressed the problem with social identity threats. When one is facing stereotype threats or stigma, it will distract performance on the task (Dennehy et al., p. 585). The authors of this study developed a framework for assuaging social identity threats. This framework can be used in response to people who are stigmatized by in-group and