Developing high-reliability organisations: A social identity model

Abstract

This paper explains how contemporary psychological theorising can be brought to bear on the challenges of creating and sustaining high-reliability organisations (HROs). Building on a large body of theory and evidence in the social identity tradition, we argue that social identity processes are critical to the creation of HROs. In particular, (a) the psychology of organisational members needs to be informed by a sense of shared social identity (a sense of “us-ness”) such that their actions are underpinned by collective mind in ways discussed by Weick and Roberts (1993), (b) social identities need to be aligned across the organisation, and (c) the content of social identities needs to be informed by a sense that high-reliability behaviours are central to “who we are” and “what we do”. In light of this, we argue that HROs are created by identity leadership which allows organisations to narrow the gap between “who we are” and “who want to be” through the pursuit of high-reliability goals. Critically, identity leadership serves to inspire the engaged followership necessary to achieve these goals, whilst also being sensitive to structural affordances and barriers. These insights are integrated within a Social Identity Model of HROs (SIM-HRO) which provides an integrative framework to inform theory and practice in the field.