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The relationship between workgroup identification and organizational identification: The moderating role of perceived similarities between targets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2014

Géraldine Marique*
Affiliation:
Université catholique de Louvain, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Place Cardinal Mercier, 10, bte L3.05.01, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Florence Stinglhamber
Affiliation:
Université catholique de Louvain, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Place Cardinal Mercier, 10, bte L3.05.01, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Donatienne Desmette
Affiliation:
Université catholique de Louvain, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Place Cardinal Mercier, 10, bte L3.05.01, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Edwine Goldoni
Affiliation:
Université catholique de Louvain, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Place Cardinal Mercier, 10, bte L3.05.01, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
*
Corresponding author: geraldine.marique@uclouvain.be

Abstract

The present research aims to examine the role played by perceived similarities between the workgroup and the organization in the relationships between workgroup identification, organizational identification, and affective organizational commitment. Using two different samples, we found that when perceived similarities were high, workgroup identification was more strongly related to organizational identification and that this relationship carried over to affective organizational commitment. These results were obtained with both a global measure of perceived similarities (Study 1) and a more narrow measure operationalizing perceived similarities in terms of value congruence (Study 2), confirming the generalizability of our results.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2014 

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