Members from diverse workgroups face the challenge to work effectively together. Benefits associated with diversity may be overshadowed by lack of cohesion and subgroup forming, which can withdraw team members from working together cooperatively or helping each other out when necessary. In three studies, we showed that an individual’s focus on relationships (relational identity orientation; Brewer & Gardner, 1996), promotes prosocial behavior towards workgroup members from a different social group. Study 1 showed that high-trait relationally oriented individuals are more willing to cooperate with an outgroup member compared to low-trait relationally oriented individuals. Study 2 showed that priming a relational orientation leads to a higher willingness to help outgroup members compared to priming a personal or collective orientation. In Study 3, we replicated the findings of both studies and additionally tested two person-by-situation interaction models. It appeared that both trait relational identity orientation and identity primes appeared to independently predict cooperation tendencies with fellow workgroup members.
AbramsD.HoggM. A. (1990). Social identification, self-categorization, and social influence. European Review of Social Psychology, 1, 195–228.
2.
AllportG. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
3.
AronA.AronE. N.SmollanD. (1992). Inclusion of other in the self scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 596–612.
4.
BarghJ. A. (1986). Individual construct accessibility and perceptual selection. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 22, 293–311.
5.
BaumeisterR. F. (1999). On the interface between personality and social psychology. In PervinL. A.JohnO. P. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 367–377). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
6.
BrewerM. B. (1979). Ingroup bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cognitive-motivational analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 307–324.
7.
BrewerM. B. (1991). The social self: On being the same and different at the same time. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 475–482.
8.
BrewerM. B.GardnerW. (1996). Who is this “we”? Levels of collective identity and self representations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 83–93.
9.
BricksonS. (2000). The impact of identity orientation on individual and organizational outcomes in demographically diverse settings. Academy of Management Review, 25, 82–101.
10.
BricksonS.BrewerM. B. (2001). Identity orientation and intergroup relations in organizations. In HoggM. A.TerryD. J. (Eds.), Social identity processes in organizational contexts (pp. 49–66). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
11.
ByrneD. S. (1971). The attraction paradigm. New York, NY: Academic Press.
12.
ByrneD. S. (1999). Social exclusion. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
13.
CartwrightD.ZanderA. (1968). Group dynamics (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row.
14.
CookS. (1962). The systematic analysis of socially significant events: A strategy for social research. Journal of Social Issues, 18, 66–84.
15.
CrispR. J.WalshJ.HewstoneM. (2006). Crossed categorization in common ingroup contexts. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 1204–1218.
16.
CrossS. E.BaconP. L.MorrisM. L. (2000). The relational-interdependent self-construal and relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 791–808.
17.
DovidioJ.GaertnerS.SaguyT. (2009). Commonality and the complexity of “we”: Social attitudes and social change. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13(1), 3–20.
18.
DuttonJ. E.DukerichJ. M.HarquailC. V. (1994). Organizational images and member identification. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39, 239–263.
19.
FiskeS. T. (1998). Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. In GilbertD. T.FiskeS. T.LindzeyG. (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 357–411). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
20.
GaertnerS. L.DovidioJ. F. (2000). Reducing intergroup bias: The common ingroup identity model. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
21.
GaertnerS. L.MannJ. A.MurrellA. J.DovidioJ. F. (1989). Reduction of intergroup bias: The benefits of recategorization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 239–249.
22.
HoggM. A.AbramsD. (1990). Social motivation, self-esteem and social identity. In AbramsD.HoggM. A. (Eds.), Social identity theory: Constructive and critical advances (pp. 28–47). London, UK: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
23.
HullJ.SloneL.MeteyerK.MatthewsA. (2002). The nonconsciousness of self-consciousness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(2), 406–424.
24.
JacksonS.BrettJ.SessaV.CooperD.JulinJ.PeyronninK. (1991). Some differences make a difference: Individual dissimilarity and group heterogeneity as correlates of recruitment, promotions, and turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(5), 675–689.
25.
JehnK. A.NorthcraftG. B.NealeM. A. (1999). Why differences make a difference: A field study of diversity, conflict, and performance in workgroups. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44, 741–763.
26.
KashimaE. S.HardieE. A. (2000). The development and validation of the Relational, Individual, and Collective Self-aspects (RIC) Scale. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 3, 19–48.
27.
LauD.MurnighanJ. K. (1998). Demographic diversity and faultlines: The compositional dynamics of organizational groups. Academy of Management Review, 23, 325–340.
28.
LewinK. (1935). A dynamic theory of personality. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
29.
LindE. A.TylerT. R. (1988). The social psychology of procedural justice. New York, NY: Plenum.
30.
LuijtersK.van der ZeeK. I.OttenS. (2006). Acculturation strategies among ethnic minority workers and the role of intercultural personality traits. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 9, 561–575.
31.
MarkusH.KitayamaS. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253.
32.
MessickD. M.MackieD. M. (1989). Intergroup relations. Annual Review of Psychology, 40, 45–81.
33.
MessickD.McClintockC. (1968). Motivational bases of choice in experimental games. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 4(1), 1–25.
34.
MillikenF.BartelC.KurtzbergT. (2003). Diversity and creativity in work groups: A dynamic perspective on the affective and cognitive processes that link diversity and performance. In PaulusP. B.NijstadB. (Eds.), Group creativity: Innovation through collaboration (pp. 32–62). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
35.
NewcombT. M. (1956). The prediction of interpersonal attraction. Psychological Review, 60, 393–404.
36.
O’ReillyC. A.CaldwellD. F.BarnettW. P. (1989). Work group demography, social integration, and turnover. Administrative Science Quarterly, 34, 21–37.
37.
Page-GouldE.Mendoza-DentonR.TroppL. R. (2008). With a little help from my cross-group friend: Reducing anxiety in intergroup contexts through cross-group friendship. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1080–1094.
38.
PennerL. A.DovidioJ. F.PiliavinJ. A.SchroederD. A. (2005). Prosocial behavior: Multilevel perspectives. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 365–392.
39.
PettigrewT. F. (1997). Generalized intergroup contact effects on prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 173–185.
40.
PettigrewT. F.TroppL. R. (2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 751–783.
41.
RiordanC. M.ShoreL. M. (1997). Demographic diversity and employee attitudes: An empirical examination of relational demography within work units. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 342–358.
42.
SingelisT. M. (1994). The measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 480–591.
43.
SmeestersD.WarlopL.van AvermaetE.CorneilleO.YzerbytV. (2003). Do not prime hawks with doves: The interplay of construct activation and consistency of social value orientation on cooperative behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(5), 972–987.
44.
SmeestersD.YzerbytV.CorneilleO.WarlopL. (2009). When do primes prime? The moderating role of the self-concept in individuals’ susceptibility to priming effects on social behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(1), 211–216.
45.
StapelD. A.van der ZeeK. I. (2006). The self salience model of other-to-self effects: Integrating principles of self-enhancement, complementarity, and imitation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 258–271.
46.
TajfelH.TurnerJ. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In AustinW. G.WorchelS. (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–47). Monterey, CA: Brooks-Cole.
47.
TurnerJ. C.HoggM. A.OakesP. J.ReicherS. D.WetherellM. S. (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
48.
TyboutA.SternthalB. (2001). Can I test for simple effects in the presence of an insignificant interaction? Journal of Consumer Psychology, 10, 5–10.
49.
UtzS. (2004). Self-activation is a two-edged sword: The effects of I primes on cooperation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(6), 769–776.
50.
Van der ZeeK. I.AtsmaN.BrodbeckF. (2004). The influence of social identity and personality on outcomes of cultural diversity in teams. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35, 283–303.
51.
Van der ZeeK.PaulusP.VosM.ParthasarathyN. (2009). The impact of group composition and attitudes towards diversity on anticipated outcomes of diversity in groups. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 12(2), 257–280.
52.
Van der ZeeK. I.PeruginiM. (2006). Personality and solidary behavior. In: FetchenhauerD.BuunkA. P.LindenbergS. (Eds.), Solidarity and prosocial behavior: An integration of sociological and psychological perspectives (pp. 77–92). New York, NY: Springer Science + Business Media.
53.
Van der ZeeK. I.van der GangI. (2007). Personality, threat and affective responses to cultural diversity. European Journal of Personality, 21, 453–470.
54.
Van DyneL.LePineJ. A. (1998). Helping and voice extra-role behaviors: Evidence of construct and predictive validity. Academy of Management Journal, 41, 112–124.
55.
Van HeckG. L. (1997). Personality and physical health: Toward an ecological approach to health-related personality research. European Journal of Personality, 11, 415–443.
56.
Van KnippenbergD.De DreuC. K. W.HomanA. C. (2004). Work group diversity and group performance: An integrative model and research agenda. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 1008–1022.
57.
Van LangeP. A. M. (2000). Beyond self-interest: A set of propositions relevant to interpersonal orientations. In StroebeW.HewstoneM. (Eds.), European Review of Social Psychology (Vol. 11, pp. 297–330). New York, NY: Wiley.
58.
Van LangeP. A. M.AgnewC. R.HarinckF.SteemersG. E. M. (1997). From game theory to real life: How social value orientation affects willingness to sacrifice in ongoing close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1330–1344.
59.
Van VugtM.HartC. M. (2004). Social identity as social glue: The origins of group loyalty. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 585–598.
60.
VosM. W.van der ZeeK. I.BuunkA. P. (2009). Individual differences in self construal: The development of a measure of personal, relational and collective self. Manuscript under review.
61.
WheelerS.DeMarreeK.PettyR. (2007). Understanding the role of the self in prime-to-behavior effects: The active-self account. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(3), 234–261.
62.
WilliamsK.O’ReillyC. (1998). The complexity of diversity: A review of forty years of research. Research in Organizational Behavior, 20, 77–140.
