Psychology in Organisations: The Social Identity Approach

Citation

Haslam, S. A. (2004). Psychology in Organizations: The Social Identity Approach (2nd ed.). Sage Publications.

Chapter Summary

The second edition has twelve chapters and about 336 pages. Chapter 1 sets out the field and Chapter 2 introduces the social identity approach; Chapters 3 to 11 then apply that approach to one organizational topic each; Chapter 12 steps back to assess organizational psychology as a discipline. The edition added a chapter on stress. Each chapter ends with suggestions for further reading, and the book includes glossaries of social identity, social psychological and organizational terms.

Chapter 1: Organizations and Their Psychology

The opening chapter introduces organizations as the subject of psychological study and the place of psychology within the study of organizations. It prepares the ground for the theoretical framework that follows.

Chapter 2: The Social Identity Approach

This chapter presents the theoretical framework used for the rest of the book. A review of the first edition quoted by the publisher describes the book as explaining Social Identity Theory and Self-Categorization Theory and their links to organizational behaviour, so this is the chapter to master before going further.

Chapters 3–6: Leadership; Motivation and Commitment; Communication and Information Management; Group Decision Making

These four chapters apply the approach to core topics of organizational psychology. Leadership comes first, followed by motivation and commitment, communication and information management, and group decision making.

Chapters 7–9: Intergroup Negotiation and Conflict Management; Power; Group Productivity and Performance

The next three chapters turn to relations between groups and to how groups perform: negotiation and conflict management between groups, power, and the productivity and performance of groups.

Chapter 10: Stress

New to the second edition. The publisher says the chapter deals with stress appraisal, social support, coping and burnout.

Chapter 11: Collective Action and Industrial Protest

This chapter treats collective action and industrial protest, the last of the topical chapters, which moves from behaviour inside the workplace to organized action by groups of workers.

Chapter 12: The Theory, Practice and Politics of Organizational Psychology: A Case for Organic Pluralism

The last chapter reflects on the theory, practice and politics of organizational psychology and argues, as its subtitle indicates, for what the author calls organic pluralism.

Key Concepts

• Social Identity Theory and Self-Categorization Theory: the two linked theories behind the book's approach, introduced in Chapter 2.
• Leadership, motivation and commitment: the individual-and-group topics of Chapters 3 and 4 treated from the social identity perspective.
• Communication, information management and group decision making: Chapters 5 and 6.
• Intergroup negotiation and conflict: Chapter 7.
• Power, productivity and performance: Chapters 8 and 9.
• Stress appraisal, social support, coping and burnout: the topics of Chapter 10.
• Collective action and industrial protest: Chapter 11.
• Organic pluralism: the position argued in Chapter 12.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• One framework throughout. Every topical chapter uses the same theoretical approach, so the book reads as a single argument across leadership, motivation, communication, decision making, negotiation, power, productivity, stress and collective action. A first-edition review quoted by the publisher calls the approach a novel and timely application to the organizational domain that integrates existing research and gives a model for theoretical and practical progress.
• Wide topical coverage. The publisher lists the book's extensive reviews and critiques of major topics in organizational psychology, and the contents bear this out, running from leadership to industrial protest.
• Study aids. The second edition has further-reading suggestions at the end of each chapter and glossaries of social identity, social psychological and organizational terms, as well as a wider textbook format that the publisher says makes the book more accessible.
• Stress added. The new stress chapter covers appraisal, social support, coping and burnout,.

Limitations

• A single theoretical lens. Because the book applies one approach throughout, it does not give a neutral survey of competing theories of organizational behaviour. The final chapter, which argues for organic pluralism, shows the author is aware of the question, but readers will need other books for rival accounts.
• Date. The edition appeared in 2004, so research on the topics of the later chapters since then is not included.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within the organizational psychology course list this is the theory-driven social-psychological text. Spector's Industrial and Organisational Psychology and the OpenStax Organizational Behavior are broad introductions to the field, and Chmiel, Fraccaroli and Sverke's Introduction to Work and Organizational Psychology is an edited European introductory text built around practical questions; read one of them first for the whole map of topics. Furnham's The Psychology of Behaviour at Work and Fineman, Gabriel and Sims's Organizing and Organizations give further general coverage.

Haslam's own later work with colleagues, The New Psychology of Leadership, takes the leadership theme into a dedicated book, and Weick's Sensemaking in Organizations and Morgan's Images of Organisation approach organizations through sensemaking and through metaphor. Read Haslam when you want a social-psychological, group-based account that connects the topics a general text treats separately.

How to Use This Book

The book suits upper-level undergraduates and postgraduates in psychology, management or organizational studies, and anyone who wants a social-psychological theory of organizations. A first course in social psychology or organizational behaviour will help.

A practical plan:

• Read Chapters 1 and 2 first and carefully. The rest depends on the framework they set out.
• Then choose by topic. Chapters 3–9 can be read in any order; start with leadership (Chapter 3) or the topic your course covers.
• Add Chapter 10 (stress) and Chapter 11 (collective action) for health-related or industrial relations courses.
• End with Chapter 12 to place the approach in the wider discipline.
• Use the glossaries to keep terms straight and the further-reading lists to follow up each chapter, and compare each chapter with how a general textbook treats the same topic.