Employee-Organization Identity Fusion: Connecting Leadership and Symmetrical Internal Communication to Identity- and Engagement-Related Outcomes

Abstract

Employees are key organizational stakeholders whose value to the enterprise’s functioning has long been emphasized in business communication literature. The present study serves to integrate business communication, organizational psychology, and leadership literature to advance a theoretically grounded model explaining employees’ job engagement. Drawing upon recent advances in consumer psychology and social identity scholarship on brand identity fusion, this study examines how employee-organization identity fusion, or a visceral feeling of oneness with the organization experienced by employees may contribute to their job engagement. Surveys conducted among employees belonging to corporations with one thousand or more employees revealed not only the power of authentic leadership and symmetrical communication in engendering employee-organization identity fusion, but also how leadership and communication can foster workers’ job engagement. The theoretical and managerial implications of this work are discussed (132 words).