Social identification among school teachers ...

129 SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION PSYCHOLOGY, IN SCHOOL TEACHERS EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WORK AND ORGANIZATIONAL 2002, 11 (2), 129–149

Social identification among school teachers: Dimensions, foci, and correlates Rolf van Dick and Ulrich Wagner

Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany The implications of social identification for work motivation and other workrelated attitudes and behaviours are discussed. Based on assumptions from social identity theory and self-categorization theory, it is proposed that an increase in social identification or social identity salience will be associated with improvement in those aspects of work motivation, work satisfaction, and other behaviours of group members that are in accordance with in-group norms. In addition, the theories suggest a distinction between different dimensions (e.g., cognitive, affective) and different foci (e.g., work group, occupational group) of identification. Results from two correlational studies with school teachers as participants (Ns = 201, 283) test and support the proposed ideas.

The aim of the present article is to present the social identity approach and its implications for organizational contexts. Two empirical studies will test the proposed relationships between identification and job-related attitudes and will give insight into the empirical distinctiveness of different dimensions and foci of identification. Recent research has shown that social identification is relevant in organizational contexts. Furthermore, this research has provided preliminary evidence that identification can not simply be considered as a unidimensional concept but that there are many facets. These facets have to be distinguished Requests for reprints should be addressed to R. van Dick, FB Psychologie, Gutenbergstr. 18, 35032 Marburg, Germany. Email: [email protected] We would like to thank Dominic Abrams, Oliver Christ, Guido Hertel, Alex Haslam, Daan van Knippenberg, Juergen Wegge, Michael West, Patricia Zapf, and several anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this article. We are thankful to Holger Domsch, Julia Fuchs, Cordula Grubba, Isabell Heinemann, Katja Henschel, Anja Hofmann, Nicole Jahraus, Sandra Jünemann, Ulrike Kiefert, Stefan Konopniak, Julia Sauk, Christina Spangenberg, Martina Wiegand, and Carina Wolf for data collection of study 1. We are also grateful to Riad Alnabary, Latifa Badour, Mira-Lynn Chavanon, Alexander Gompf, Annelie Immonen-Proetzel, Nadine Kley, Katharina Lüer, Marija Mangels, Christian Putsche, Ulrich Suschke, and Philipp Wilde for data collection of study 2. Portions of this research were presented at the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology Small group meeting on social identity processes in organizations, Amsterdam 5–8 July, 2000.

© 2002 Psychology Press Ltd http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pp/1359432X.html DOI:10.1080/13594320143000889

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because they are associated with work-related variables differentially (e.g., Ellemers, de Gilder, & van den Heuvel, 1998; van Knippenberg & van Schie, 2000). Both empirical studies presented in this article were conducted with German school teachers as participants. Therefore, the studies aim to replicate research by Ellemers and her colleagues and van Knippenberg and van Schie first in Germany and second in different occupational groups. The occupational group in question is of special interest for a number of reasons: A large number of studies show that teachers are exposed to high workloads, which result in particularly high levels of stress and strain. As a result, at least one-third of teachers can be seen as suffering from extreme stress and/or burnout (van Dick & Wagner, 2001). This leads to large amounts of absenteeism and early retirement rates among teachers (e.g., from the total of about 1000 teachers quitting their job each year in Hessia, only 3–5% reach the age of regular retirement, 55–65% retire early because of severe illness; van Dick, 1999a). Teachers can also be positively or negatively sanctioned with material goods to a very minor extent. This is because, at least in Germany, teachers are federal employees, and as a result, jobs are very secure. Salary only depends upon age and promotion is relatively rare. Combined, these factors suggest that there are few extrinsic motivators and that psychological variables such as identification should play a particularly important role in job satisfaction, co-operation, and early retirement intentions.

THE SOCIAL IDENTITY APPROACH

Our research is based on two related theories of intergroup- and intragroupbehaviour: social identity theory (SIT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) and selfcategorization theory (SCT; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). SIT was initially developed to explain intergroup attitudes. The theory relates group-relevant behaviours to the individual’s self-definition: Group membership defines at least a part of its members’ identity, their social identity. About 10 years after the first publication of SIT, John Turner and his co-workers developed SCT (Turner et al., 1987). The combination of the two models, SIT and SCT, is sometimes described as the social identity approach (Haslam, 2001; Hogg & Abrams, 1988). SCT is intended to cover a larger field of application and to incorporate SIT (Turner, 1999). In practice, however, SCT has mainly enriched research on intragroup processes. In this domain, SCT argues for a change in the meta-theory of groups; whereas traditional small group research centred on interpersonal relations, such as interpersonal interdependence, as the basis of group development, SCT focuses on self-categorization, arguing that a group emerges when a number of people perceive themselves to be members of the same social category (Turner, 1982).

SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION IN SCHOOL TEACHERS

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SCT assumes that individuals can categorize themselves at three main levels of abstraction: (1) at a subordinate level as an individual person (who compares him- or herself with other individuals), (2) at an intermediate level as a member of a certain group (which then is compared with relevant outgroups), or (3) at a superordinate level as a human being. At the intermediate level a number of identifications are possible and which one is used depends upon the social context: For organizational contexts this means that a person can identify him- or herself as a member of the organization when the context makes the organization salient. If there is a comparison between teams within this organization, another identification might become more relevant, that is, identification with one’s own team (Ellemers et al., 1998; Haslam, 2001; Moreland, Levine, & McMinn, 2001; and see the next section for a broader discussion of different foci of identification). SIT and SCT describe two pre-conditions for the emergence of selfcategorizations and group behaviours: category salience and identification. The concept of category salience, as fully elaborated in SCT, connects identification with situational influences. On the one hand, following Bruner (1957), salience depends on the accessibility of a category within a person’s cognitive repertoire. On the other hand it depends on the fit of the category to the situation (Oakes, 1987; Oakes, Haslam, & Turner, 1994). This means salience increases, for example, if a category is especially mentioned (Hogg & Turner, 1985), if the category is encountered in the context of relevant other categories (Turner et al., 1987), and especially if the category is engaged in conflict with other categories (Wagner & Ward, 1993). Identification refers to “a relatively enduring state that reflects an individual’s readiness to define him- or herself as a member of a particular social group” (Haslam, 2001, p. 383).

DIMENSIONS AND FOCI OF IDENTIFICATION

Within the social identity approach, three dimensions of identification can be distinguished (Ellemers et al., 1998; Tajfel, 1978): a cognitive component of identification (the person considers him- or herself as member of a certain category), an evaluative component (the person perceives a certain evaluation of the category from the outside, for example from society), and an affective component (the value connotation the person attaches to the category and his or her membership in it (for a deeper theoretical reasoning for this differentiation, see also Ellemers et al., 1998; Ouwerkerk, Ellemers, & de Gilder, 1999). Some authors of ethnic identity research (e.g., Phinney, 1991) have pointed to a fourth component of identification, namely behavioural identification, which describes participation in group-defining behaviours, such as participation in ethnic minorities’/organizational traditions. Van Dick (2001) structured the dimensions and presented a framework for the integration of the four dimensions of organizational identification along with the diverse dimensions of organizational

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commitment. Several authors have constructed scales to measure and differentiate different dimensions of identification (Brown, Condor, Matthews, Wade, & Williams, 1986; Hinkle, Taylor, Fox-Cardamone, & Crook, 1989; Karasawa, 1991; see Haslam, 2001, for a review). Mostly, however, these attempts have ended up in unidimensional solutions or, in the best cases, solutions with two-factor structures (Klink, Mummendey, Mielke, & Blanz, 1997; for a more general distinction of identification concepts see also Jackson & Smith, 1999). In addition to the dimensions just described, in the context of work-related attitudes and job performance it makes sense to differentiate between foci of identification (Becker, Billings, Eveleth, & Gilbert, 1996; van Knippenberg & van Schie, 2000). If we consider organizational groups and organizational identification, at least four foci can be distinguished, namely (1) identification with one’s own career, (2) identification with one’s working unit or group, (3) identification with the organization as a whole, and (4) identification with the profession (or occupational group), or union-identification (Snape, Redman, & Chan, 2000). Related to levels of abstraction of SCT, career identification corresponds with the personal level of categorization, whereas the other three correspond to a group level of identification. As a general hypothesis it can be proposed that especially those aspects of group performance that correspond to the focus of identification will be influenced by a person’s identification. For example, if a person’s focus of identification is on his or her own career, one would expect this person to concentrate on behaviours that promote the individual career (see Ellemers et al., 1998). On the other hand, if the person is highly identified with his or her working unit, we would predict that this person will contribute in enhancing group outcomes (e.g., by showing high levels of extra-role behaviour, low absenteeism, etc.). Recently, van Dick, Wagner, Stellmacher, and Christ (2001) conducted a questionnaire study among 515 school teachers. Results of confirmatory factor analyses clearly demonstrated that the four proposed dimensions (cognitive, affective, evaluative, and behavioural) and the different foci (career, team, school, and occupation) are indeed distinguishable and related to a range of variables to different extents. However, van Dick and colleagues used a different type of measurement and different items to obtain identification than was used in the empirical studies presented later in this article.

RELATIONS BETWEEN IDENTIFICATION AND WORK-RELATED ATTITUDES

Research in organizational psychology has demonstrated that individuals who feel emotionally attached to their organizations show more job satisfaction, motivation, job performance, and report fewer search intentions and actual turnover (for an overview, see Matthieu & Zajac, 1990). These relationships are


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especially strong in the case of affective commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1997). Affective commitment is defined as “the employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization” (Meyer & Allen, 1991, p. 67). Thus, it seems sensible to assume a close relationship between affective commitment, as used in organizational literature, and the affective component of identification as proposed by SIT (see Ellemers et al., 1998; van Dick, 2001). However, different psychological disciplines rarely take theoretical advances and empirical findings of other disciplines into account (but for recent exceptions, see Haslam, 2001; Hogg & Terry, 2001). Identification, as derived from the social identity approach, is different from identification as part of commitment, as conceptualized by several organizational researchers (e.g., see organizational commitment questionnaires from Meyer & Allen, 1997; Porter, Steers, Mowday, & Boulian, 1974). These measures have often been criticized, mainly because they are seen to encounter methodological problems (Abrams, Ando, & Hinkle, 1998; Allen & Meyer, 1990). The main argument for distinguishing between commitment and identification resides in the fact that commitment research and measures largely ignore individuals’ sense of “oneness” with an organization, that is, the affective, evaluative, and cognitive perception of being an organizational member (Abrams et al., 1998; Pratt, 1998). As Ashforth and Mael (1989) wrote it in their seminal paper, which first applied SIT in the organizational context, “social identification provides a partial answer to the question of Who am I?” (p. 21). That means an individual identifies with his or her organization because its goals and objectives are close to his or her own ones, the member feels as part of the organization as a “family”. Thus, identification reflects the extent to which the group membership is incorporated in the self-concept, and, contrary to that, commitment focuses mainly on attitudes an individual holds towards his or her organization because of exchange-based factors. Mael and Ashforth (1992; see also Ellemers et al., 1998; Haslam, 2001; Haslam & Turner, 2001; van Knippenberg, 2000; van Knippenberg & van Schie, 2000) assume that the more individuals identify with their organization, the more they think and act from the organization’s perspective and the more they expend effort on behalf of the organization (Dutton, Dukerich, & Harquail, 1994). There are two other reasons why commitment and identification should be treated as distinct concepts (van Knippenberg & Sleebos, 2001). First, according to predictions of social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) and particularly self-categorization theory (Turner et al., 1987), identification is highly flexible and its impact on group relevant behaviours depends upon the salience of the group and on the context of interactions with other groups (see Pratt, 2001). In contrast, commitment is seen as an attitude that, once established, is relatively stable and enduring. Second, identification and commitment develop on the basis of different sources (Pratt, 1998). Identification is seen as contingent upon the basis of shared

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fate and perceived similarity with the organization (Mael & Ashforth, 1992), whereas commitment develops mainly because of exchange-based factors, that is, the (material) relationship between the individual and the organization (Tyler & Blader, 2000). Consistent with this view, the concepts of commitment and identification have been found to be distinguishable empirically (e.g., Mael & Tetrick, 1992). Van Knippenberg and Sleebos (2001) distinguished identification from organizational commitment. Affective commitment and organizational identification were highly correlated in their sample of 200 faculty members of a Dutch university. However, a confirmatory factor structure assuming separate factors for the two concepts was significantly more appropriate than a model assuming only one underlying factor. In two studies, Gautam and colleagues showed the distinctiveness of identification. In the first study among 103 employees of different companies in Nepal, van Dick, Wagner, and Gautam (in press; Gautam, van Dick, & Wagner, 2001a) calculated confirmatory factor analyses. Results showed that a two-item measure of organizational identification, very similar to the one used in the first empirical study in this article, was distinguishable from affective, normative, and continuance commitment. Furthermore, identification was more closely related to job satisfaction, job motivation, and turnover intentions than any of the three commitment types. The second study, conducted with 450 employees in Nepal (Gautam, van Dick, & Wagner, 2001b), replicated the distinctiveness of a 25-item scale measuring organizational identification from affective, normative, continuance, and attitudinal commitment with confirmatory factor analyses. In several studies relations between identification and work-related attitudes also have been obtained (Mael & Ashforth, 1992, 1995; Mael & Tetrick, 1992; Wan-Huggins, Riordan, & Griffeth, 1998) and relations between identification and work-related variables have been found to be different from relations between those work-related variables and organizational commitment (van Knippenberg & Sleebos, 2001). In the study conducted by Gautam, van Dick, and Wagner (2001b), for example, identification was more closely related to job satisfaction, than were commitment and job satisfaction. To give another example, van Knippenberg and Sleebos found a stronger relation between perceived administrative support (POS) and commitment than between POS and identification but a higher correlation between a measure of self-reference and identification than between selfreference and commitment. In several recent studies the co-variation of in-group identification, workrelated attitudes, and group productivity has been analysed in work contexts. This research simultaneously examines different dimensions and/or foci of identification as proposed earlier. For example, van Knippenberg and van Schie (2000) obtained correlations in two samples (university faculty members and local government employees) between identification on the one hand, and job


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satisfaction, turnover intentions, and job involvement on the other. For both samples, work group identification, as the closer focus, was the better predictor for the different criteria compared to the broader focus of identification with the organization as a whole. Ellemers et al. (1998) assessed career-oriented commitment, organizational commitment, and team-oriented commitment among a representative sample of the Dutch population (N = 690) and found that these three forms of commitment were distinct constructs. Measuring work-related behaviours (e.g., working hours, satisfaction, absenteeism, overtime) 1 year later, Ellemers and colleagues showed that there was a differential impact of the forms of commitment on specific behaviours. Thus, for example, team-oriented commitment was the best predictor of overtime, whereas career-oriented commitment best predicted voluntary job change, and organizational commitment was correlated positively with work satisfaction and negatively with applications for other jobs. The results were cross-validated in a second study among 287 employees of a financial service organization in Belgium. In sum, it has been shown that (1) identification plays an important role in work-related attitudes and behaviour, and (2) the emotional component of identification is probably the best predictor of group performance (see also Ouwerkerk et al., 1999).

AIMS AND HYPOTHESES OF THE EMPIRICAL STUDIES

The aim of the following studies is to gain insights into the relationships between identification and job-related attitudes (studies 1 and 2) and into the empirical distinctiveness of different dimensions and foci of identification (study 2). Our main hypothesis for both studies is that social identification correlates with work-related attitudes and behaviours, in that it is associated with greater motivation and satisfaction, higher self-reported well-being, lower self-reported absenteeism, and less intentions to quit or to retire early. The following field studies exemplify the derivations from SIT and SCT, described previously, on data from two samples of school teachers. More specifically, in the first study identification with the occupational group is operationalized and correlations between group identification measure and absenteeism, well-being, and workrelated attitudes are obtained. In the second study the concept of identification is differentiated into different foci and dimensions. Our hypotheses for study 2 are, first, that it is possible to distinguish between these dimensions and foci and, second, that different relationships between these aspects of identification on the one hand and self-reported absenteeism and well-being, intentions to quit, and self-reported citizenship behaviours on the other occur.

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STUDY 1: General identification and work-related behaviour of school teachers Method

Participants. 201 German school teachers participated in the study (mean age 45 years; mean professional experience 17 years; 29% in part-time occupations, 80% married or living in firm partnership, 73% with at least one child; 110 females). The teachers were told that they were taking part in a study on work stress and strain (van Dick & Wagner, 2001). The questionnaires were administered by undergraduate psychology students doing their theses (van Dick, 1999a). The response rate was 60%. The sample does not claim to be representative but, because of its heterogeneity, generalizability for German teachers can be assumed. Questionnaire. Among other questions, participants were asked for their identification with the teaching occupation on four items adopted from the identity subscale of Luhtanen and Crocker’s collective self-esteem scale (1992; for the German version see Wagner & Zick, 1993): “Belonging to the group of teachers is very important for me”, “I often regret that I am a teacher”, “The group of teachers is an important reflection of who I am”, “In general, I’m glad to be a teacher”. Items were answered on six-point scales with the endpoints “totally agree” and “totally disagree”. Scale reliability was .64 (Cronbachs alpha) and factor analysis (principal components) revealed unidimensional structure (Eigenvalue of the 1. factor: 2.0, 2. factor: 0.9, variance explained by 1. factor: 50%, 2. factor: 23%, item loadings on first factor range from .57 to .81). Correlational analysis showed no relationships between identification and demographic characteristics of teachers (age, gender, years of professional experience, partnership status, occupational status) and schools (teachers’ number of pupils in the classroom, number of pupils in school, type of school). In addition to social identification, participants were asked to indicate their subjective perception of the frequency of different physical symptoms (e.g., headaches, pain in the shoulders) on six-point response scales (endpoints “never” and “very often” ), and some subscales of the Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman & Oldham, 1975; for a detailed analysis of the JDS in the teaching occupation see van Dick, Schnitger, Schwartzmann-Buchelt, & Wagner, 2001). Of importance here are the JDS sub-scales relating to motivating potential (that is the core job dimensions), experienced meaningfulness and responsibility of the work, as well as general work satisfaction. The latter can be further divided into two sub-scales of growth satisfaction and internal work motivation. Participants were also asked to indicate self-reported days of absenteeism from the job in the last half year with a single item. We acknowledge the purposes of researchers on absenteeism (e.g., Schmidt & Daume, 1996) in compiling different measures (e.g., summary


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scores, frequency of absent days, frequency of periods of different duration). Because of administrative limitations it was not possible in the present context to get the “hard facts” or to measure different aspects of absenteeism with subjective methods.

Results

Table 1 shows the number of items, reliabilities, and the results of regression analyses with job-related attitudes as criteria and demographic characteristics (block 1) and identification (block 2) as predictors. Additionally, Table 1 reveals the bivariate correlations between identification and the other variables. As can be seen, most of the results are consistent with our hypothesis that identification is significantly related to job attitudes. Identification was a strong predictor for the different measures of the JDS and the results indicate that teachers high in identification saw their job as more significant, experienced them as more meaningful, and had higher general work satisfaction, growth satisfaction, and motivation, than teachers low in identification. These relations are stable when controlling for the full set of demographic variables. In opposition to our hypotheses, there was no correlation between identification and days of absenteeism (mean: 2.96, standard deviation: 4.4, min: 0, max: 30). To test possible curvilinear co-variations (without having certain hypotheses about such relationships), a one-way ANOVA with identification divided into four quartiles as independent variable and days of absenteeism as dependent variable was conducted. The results were also far from significant, F(3, 197) = 0.84, p = .47. However, identification and physical symptoms were significantly correlated. That is, highly identified teachers reported less suffering from physical illness. Because physical symptoms and absenteeism have usually been found to be positively related (r = .30, p < .01, for the study at hand; van Dick, 1999a), the non-emergence of a relationship between identification and absenteeism is puzzling. One explanation of this result is that the absenteeism measure has captured a high degree of variance totally unrelated to identification or other motivationally based variables. This might relate to the fact that our absenteeism measure does not differentiate between voluntary and unvoluntary absence from the job (see the earlier annotations about the measure).

STUDY 2: Different aspects of identification for school teachers Method

Participants. 283 German school teachers participated in this study (mean age 46 years; mean professional experience 19 years; 26% in part-time occupations, 82% married or living in a firm partnership, 71% with at least one child; 155 female). Teachers came from all German school types and from

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Step: R2, R2-change Identification

2.

.10, .03* –18* (–.30**)

.07

(8 items, alpha = .81)

Physical symptoms

.21, .11* .35** (.37**)

.10

Motivating potential score (17 items, alpha = .79)

.23, .15** .40** (.37**)

.08


Meaning fullness

.25, .17** .44** (.50**)

.18*

.08

General work satisfaction (9 items, alpha = .85)

JDS

.14, .06** .25** (.32**)

–.21*

.08


Growth satisfaction

.36, .28** .56** (.56**)

–.17*

.08


Internal work motivation

1A number of other variables were also included in step 1, but had no effect on any of the criteria. These variables were: age, years of professional experience, own children (2 = yes), occupational status (2 = part time), number of pupils in class, school type (dummy-coded: D1 (1 = primary school), D2 (1 = secondary modern), D3 (1 = junior high), D4 (2 = high school). 2Simple bivariate correlations in brackets and bold. *p < .05; ** p < .01.

.07, .00 n.s. –.04 (–.02)2

Step: R2 .07 Demographic characteristics1 Sex (2 = male) Marital status (2 = with partner) Percentage of foreign pupils

1.

Absenteeism

TABLE 1 Results of step-wise regression analyses and Pearson correlations between identification and the criteria (study 1)

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different regions within the country. The questionnaires were administered by undergraduate psychology students doing their theses. The response rate was 63%. Questionnaire. Item development for the identification scales was based on the work of Ellemers and colleagues (1998), Ellemers, Kortekaas, and Ouwerkerk (1999), and Luhtanen and Crocker (1992). Twenty-five items were included, some addressing individual identification (self-evaluation as teacher and personal identification), others addressing collective identification (selfcategorization as a teacher, affective and evaluative group identification, team membership: see Table 2). In addition to identification, participants were asked to answer two single items, one measuring their self-reported days of absenteeism during the last half year, the other measuring their intentions to retire early. Because there is literally no turnover among teachers from their job as a teacher to other occupations or to other organizations, we see retirement intentions as a specific type of turnover intentions. Participants were also asked to complete the scale assessing physical symptoms from study 1, and a scale that measured organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The latter scale consisted of 14 items based on the operationalization of the construct devised by Organ (1997). The items were formulated in a school-specific way, asking for voluntary efforts in attending conferences, training of new colleagues, participating in personal vocational training and so on (van Dick, 1999b).

Results

All individual identification items and all collective identification items were analysed in two separate factor analyses (for a similar analytic strategy, see Ellemers et al., 1999). Both provided clear results with an explained variance of 52% for the single factor for the personal identification items and 72% for the five factors for the collective identification items. After eliminating six items, homogeneous scales were constructed. A confirmatory factor analysis (EQS, Version 5.7b) including both individual identification and collective identification items showed a sufficient fit to the data when correlations between the six factors were allowed, 2 = 330.6, df = 145, p < .001, CFI = .86, RMSEA = 0.09; 2/df = 2.3. All loadings of indicators on the six latent factors were substantial (.45–.88) and no substantial cross loadings occurred. Moreover, 2 = 493.2, p < .0001, than a this model fits the data significantly better, unidimensional solution with only one underlying factor, 2 = 823.8, df = 152, p < .001, CFI = .63, RMSEA = 0.14; 2/df = 5.4. Table 2 contains the items and the dimensions they are intended to measure as well as factor loadings and item– test correlations. The intercorrelations between the six identification scales are in most cases of low or medium size (Table 3), which is a further indicator that justifies

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TABLE 2 Items, dimensions, means, standard deviations and scale reliabilities (study 2) Scales and items Personal self-esteem (alpha = .75) 1. I have got what it takes to be a good teacher 2. I think I have good qualities for teaching 3. I am generally satisfied about myself 4. As a teacher I feel like a failure (–) 5. Looking at my lessons, there is nothing to be proud of (–) Self-categorization as a teacher (alpha = .56) 6. I identify with the group of teachers 7. I think and act like other teachers Evaluative identification (alpha = .69) 8. When I look at the group of teachers, there is little to be proud of (–) 9. I have only little respect for the group of teachers as a whole (–) Affective occupational identification (alpha = .85) 10. I would like to work further as a teacher 11. I often regret that I am a teacher (–) 12. I would rather belong to another occupational group (–) 13. In general, I feel good as a teacher 14. I feel well as a teacher Team identification (alpha = .74) 15. In each case I want to stay in the staff of the present school 16. I feel not very well in my present team (–) 17. I would rather be in another school (–) Contribution to the team (team membership; alpha = .63) 18. I think I contribute to the good reputation of the staff 19. I am a co-operative member of the staff

M

SD

r it

rif

4.8 4.9 4.8 1.2

0.9 0.9 0.9 0.6

.62 .59 .59 .50

.79 .77 .77 .67

1.4

0.8

.43

.63

3.9 3.4

1.5 1.3

.39 .39

.67 .77

2.8

1.5

.53

.78

2.1

1.3

.53

.76

5.0 1.7 2.1 5.0 4.9

1.4 1.1 1.4 1.0 1.1

.70 .70 .68 .64 .66

.78 .72 .83 .79 .75

4.6 1.9 1.9

1.5 1.3 1.4

.55 .53 .60

.78 .45 .78

4.9 4.9

0.9 1.0

.46 .46

.82 .80

All items were answered on six-point scales (endpoints: 1 = “is not at all correct”, 6 = “is totally correct”). rit = Item–test correlation; rif = Item–factor loading. (–) marks items recoded in the analyses.

the conceptual and statistical distinction between different aspects of identification. Table 4 provides the matrix of correlations between aspects of identification and work-related variables. As can be seen, the correlations were largely in line with the theoretical assumptions. That is, higher identification was accompanied by more organizational citizenship behaviour and lower absenteeism, intentions to retire early, and fewer physical symptoms. Overall, relations were strongest for affective identification. Interestingly though, the only significant relationship between absenteeism and the identification scales emerged for team identification. This relation is particularly important


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TABLE 3 Inter-correlations between identification scales (study 2) SelfEvaluative Affective Conative categorization identification occupational team identification identification Personal self-esteem .14* Self-categorization Evaluative identification Affective occupational identification Team identification

.14* .59**

.63** .21** .21**

Team membership

.21** .35** .37**

.58** .23** .24**

.39**

.41** .31**

*p < .05; **p < .01.

because it contrasts the finding of study 1, that, against our hypothesis, absenteeism was unrelated to identification. In addition to correlation analyses, four regression analyses were conducted using self-reported absenteeism, intentions to retire, perceived physical symptoms, and OCB as criteria. Two blocks of variables were successively included as predictors. Results are presented in Table 5. Again, as in study 1, demographic variables have only low and inconsistent impact on the dependent variables. As in the simple correlation analyses, it is affective occupational identification that accounts for most of the variance in criterion variables. The change in R2 due to the inclusion of the identification scales is significant in all four regressions, indicating an important influence of the identification measures, even after controlling for the full set of demographic characteristics. In additional analyses, structural equation modelling (EQS) was used to confirm regression results on the basis of latent variables. This was useful because of the different item numbers and varying internal consistencies of the TABLE 4 Correlations between identification and job–related variables (study 2) Absenteeism

Personal self-esteem Self-categorization Evaluative identification Affective occupational identification Team identification Team membership * p < .05; ** p < .01.

–.09 –.01 –.05 –.01 –.14* –.12

Intention to retire early

Physical symptoms (8 items, alpha = .82)

–.28** –.10 –.09 –.43** –.19** –.23**

–.31** .02 –.05 –.43** –.28** –.19**

OCB (14 items, alpha = .84) .40** .21** .15* .44** .15* .46**

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VAN DICK AND WAGNER TABLE 5 Results of step-wise regression analyses and latent structure analyses (study 2) Absenteeism

1. Step: R 2 Demographic characteristics1 Sex (2 = male) Age Own children (2 = yes) Occupational status (2 = part time) Percentage of foreign pupils Schooltype D2 (1 = primary school) D4 (1 = high school) 2. Step: R2, R2-change Identification measures Personal self-esteem Self-categorization Evaluative identification Affective occupational identification Team identification Team membership

.07

Intention to retire early

Physical symptoms (8 items, alpha = .82)

OCB (14 items, alpha = .84)

.11

.08

.12

.21**

–.16+

–11, .04+

–.25**

–.16* –.13*

–.15+

–.14+

.31, .20**

.32, .24** .19*

–.20*2 (–.16*) (–.18*)

–.47** (–.53*)

–.36** (–.34**) –.20**

–.25* .14* –.14* .17* .37, .25** .13+ .33** (.45*) .31** –.12+

1A number of other variables were also included in step 1, but had no effect on any of the criteria. These variables were: years of professional experience, marital status (2 = with partner), number of pupils in class, number of pupils in school. 2 Significant standardized Betas, and, in brackets, Betas of latent structure modelling. Analyses based on N = 244; excluded were teachers of seldom school types (technical college, N = 8; special school, N = 1; and from diverse other school types, N = 13, and teachers with more than 28 days of absenteeism (this was done to exclude rare cases of long absence due to severe illness). +p < .10; *p < .05; **p < .01.

identification scales. Results can be found in Table 5. For retirement intentions, physical symptoms, and OCB, affective identification with the teaching occupation remained the strongest predictor. Only with absenteeism as a criterion do the results differ: In the regression analysis affective occupational identification co-varied negatively with absenteeism, whereas structural equation modelling shows predictive influences of both team membership and team identification. The latter confirms the results of simple correlational analyses.


GENERAL DISCUSSION Summary and discussion of findings

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We argued at the beginning of this article that identification is related to but distinctive from organizational commitment, a concept frequently used to explain work-related attitudes and behaviour. The social identity approach makes predictions for the impact of social identification which were transferred recently into organizational contexts. The aim of the present article and the two empirical studies was to demonstrate first the relevance of identification in organizations. It was also our goal to test whether the concept of organizational identification can be further differentiated and how these different aspects are related to workrelated attitudes. Taken together, the results of both of the studies here indicate that identification is an important variable that contributes to differences in diverse work-related attitudes and self-reported behaviours. In study 1, analyses revealed significant relationships between a global measure of identification with the teaching occupation on the one hand, and physical symptoms and measures of work motivation and satisfaction on the other. Study 2 was a first attempt to operationalize different theoretically meaningful dimensions of identification. Six specific measures of identification could be distinguished empirically. This can be seen as an indication of the fact that researchers should consider different dimensions and foci of identification separately. In addition, correlation and regression analyses show that different aspects of identification are specifically connected with work-related variables. Indeed, affective identification seems to be especially predictive of the intention to retire, physical symptoms, and OCB. This replicates findings obtained in other occupational groups (Ellemers et al., 1998; Haslam, Powell, & Turner, 2000; Ouwerkerk et al., 1999; Tyler, 1999; van Knippenberg, 2000). However, in these studies, the perception of illness has never been obtained. Beyond replication in another occupational grouping, it could be shown here that identification is moderately related to physical symptoms (–.30 for study 1, and up to –.43 for study 2). Because it has been demonstrated (van Dick, 1999a) that physical symptoms lead to more absenteeism and more early retirement in the long run, the consideration of physical symptoms seems to be particularly important for other research on the role of identification. What is of special relevance here is that it was the cognitive aspect of identification, the self-categorization as a teacher, which accounted for variance in physical symptoms above the affective dimension. Additionally, the evaluative dimension of occupational identification and the two dimensions of team identification were also associated with organizational citizenship behaviours. Furthermore, there was no association between occupational identification and absenteeism in study 1, but there was a relation between team identification and absenteeism. In study 1, only identification with

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the occupational group was obtained, similar to the three facets of occupational identification considered here (i.e., self-categorization as a teacher, evaluative identification, and affective occupational identification), which seem to be also unrelated to absenteeism. The correlation between team identification and absenteeism can be explained by the fact that absenteeism concerns colleagues of one’s concrete team directly, but less the more abstract occupational group of teachers as a whole. This points to the hypothesized argument, that it is especially those aspects of work-related attitudes that are enhanced by stronger social identification, which correspond to the respective focus of identification. These results go far beyond replication of other studies. We have demonstrated that affective identification plays a major role in predicting workrelated attitudes. But researchers from organizational psychology could argue “So what? This was already demonstrated by research on affective commitment.” First, we have presented a number of theoretical arguments and empirical studies in the introductory part of this article reasoning that commitment and identification are distinct concepts. But even if one doubts the distinctiveness between affective identification and affective commitment because of the usually strong intercorrelations between these two concepts, we have presented evidence, that it makes sense to include the other dimensions of identification either in a general measure (study 1) or to comprise separate types of measurement for different dimensions (study 2). Moreover, if one assumes that low absenteeism, low physical symptoms, as well as a low intention to retire and high organizational citizenship behaviour on the part of the individual teachers lead to a more effective functioning of schools as an integrated unit, the results also suggest that social identification can enhance group performance in the field. Importantly, too, these relationships are stable even after controlling for demographic differences. Finally, the fact that up to 28% of variance in these outcomes was accounted for further encourages the view that identification is a major source of positive job-related attitudes. What can school authorities gain from this knowledge? Considering the important relations between identification and the set of work-related attitudes obtained in both studies, increasing teachers’ identification with their teams or occupation would have positive implications for the individual as well as for the school system. First, for the individual, job satisfaction and physical well-being are desired outcomes. Second, the school system profits from healthy and satisfied teachers directly by saving money that would be spent on pension funds. There is a range of techniques to enhance identification and commitment within human resource management (Meyer & Allen, 1997), which seem to be applicable to the teaching profession. The present research supports the relevance and necessity of such measures.


Limitations and outlook

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Having said that, for all obtained relationships, the question of causality remains open. Here we have proposed that identification leads to more well-being, higher satisfaction, and more extra-role behaviour. However, Hackman and Oldham (1975) set the variables in the reversed order. According to them, satisfaction, well-being, and so on determine identification (see also Wan-Huggins et al., 1998, who proposed this causal order but could not confirm this hypothesis empirically). A third perspective would consider identification as a variable that moderates or mediates the relationship between different job characteristics on the one hand and outcomes like satisfaction and well-being on the other. Finally, there is a fourth possibility—namely that all of the previously discussed directions are true. Indeed, consistent with this idea, SCT suggests an ongoing dynamic between self-categorization and group/organizational behaviour and an interplay that leads to mutual influences between these variables. Clearly though, longitudinal and experimental research is necessary to clarify the possible causal direction and the stability of positive identification effects over time. Another possibility of relating the concepts are moderating and mediating processes. Abrams and Randsley de Moura (2001), for example, recently have integrated satisfaction, identification, and turnover into a model with organizational identification as a mediator for the satisfaction—turnover relationship. This and other possible ways of model building would seem to be fruitful for future research. Further work should also focus on the situational and contextual impact on identification. As proposed by SIT and SCT, identification itself is not everything. Given a certain degree of identification, group behaviour also depends upon social identity salience. Thus, variations in salience, for example when facing an out-group team or organization, should be accompanied by higher satisfaction, motivation, and other work-related attitudes and behaviours. In this way, the present article raises a number of important issues and directions for future research to explore. Finally, validity of the results shall be discussed. Because only self-reported measures have been used, the problems of common method variance or response sets cannot be totally ruled out. On the other hand, we have proven validity for several measures in other studies among school teachers (van Dick, 1999a; van Dick & Wagner, 2001) by using objective data as criteria. In these studies we could also cross-validate results obtained with similar measures across different samples. Additionally, and this seems to be more relevant here, self-reported measures are more economical than other types of data collection and they are closer to the individuals reality and therefore a legitimate way of obtaining the variables of interest in studies like this (Landeck, 1981).

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