Social identity and individual productivity within groups

The purpose of the present research was to show how social identity theory can be applied to enhance individual productivity within groups. Three expe riments manipulated in-group identifiability and importance of the group fo r one's social identity, and compared individual's productivity when workin g alone to when working in a group setting. The group setting in the first study involved either a collective of unrelated individuals, a group of par ticipants expecting future interaction, or a group working for a group rewa rd. The second study compared productivity in groups with four differing in terdependent reward structures. The final study examine the impact of group members wearing a common uniform (vs. no uniform) and the presence (or abs ence) of an out-group. Results supported the general prediction that group productivity would be enhanced by factors that increase group categorizatio n and the importance of the group to members' social identities (future int eraction, interdependent reward structure and uniform/outgroup present). Ho wever, productivity in groups was not influenced by perceptions of the task or identifiability of performance. These findings extend social identity t heory by suggesting that group members will increase their in-group positio n through individual work efforts.