Social identity and self-categorization processes in organizational contexts

Although aspects of social identity theory are familiar to organizational p sychologists, its elaboration, through self-categorization theory, of how s ocial categorization and prototype-based depersonalization actually produce social identity effects is less well known. We describe these processes, r elate self-categorization theory to social identity theory, describe new th eoretical developments in detail, and show how these developments can addre ss a: range of organizational phenomena. We discuss cohesion and deviance, leadership, subgroup and sociodemographic structure, and mergers and acquis itions.