Exploring the Development of Team Identification

Abstract

Individuals strive to attach themselves to social groups that reflect positively on the way they view themselves (Tajfel, 1972, 1982; Tajfel & Turner, 1979). While social categories span a myriad of activities, pursuits and organizations, sport teams provide a pertinent example of social categories from which individuals derive social identity benefits (Cialdini & Richardson, 1980). As a result, social identity theory has been extensively applied to sport consumers as a framework contributing understanding of identity formation (Fisher & Wakefield, 1998; James, 2001), strength (Wann & Branscombe, 1993, 1995), structure (Heere & James, 2007) and management for sport fans (Cialdini et al., 1976; Cialdini & Richardson, 1980; Snyder, Lassegard, & Ford, 1986). Despite the broad contributions made by sport-based studies utilizing the theoretical propositions of social identity theory (Tajfel, 1972, 1982; Tajfel & Turner, 1979), previous work has not explored how identification develops. Research in mainstream social psychology literature acknowledges that identification does develop (Crisp & Hewstone, 2007); a position also recognized in sport management literature exploring involvement (Funk & James, 2001, 2006). In the present study we integrate social identity theory and the Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) (Funk & James, 2001, 2006) to explore how team identification develops in relation to a new sport team. The ‘new team’ context provides a compelling opportunity to explore how the development of identification occurs in the early stages of team development. Given the research was undertaken at the beginning of this process the majority of consumers were in the early stages of identity development, which provided the opportunity to explore: 1) which processes lead to developed team identification? And 2) what are the manifestations of developed team identification?