Abstract
Social identification and team performance literatures typically focus on the relationship between individual differences in identification and individual‐level performance. By using a longitudinal multilevel approach, involving 369 members of 45 sports teams across England and Italy, we compared how team‐level and individual‐level variance in social identification together predicted team and individual performance outcomes. As hypothesized, team‐level variance in identification significantly predicted subsequent levels of both perceived and actual team performance in cross‐lagged analyses. Conversely, individual‐level variance in identification did not significantly predict subsequent levels of perceived individual performance. These findings support recent calls for social identity to be considered a multilevel construct and highlight the influence of group‐level social identification on group‐level processes and outcomes, over and above its individual‐level effects.
Highlights
Social identification and team performance literatures typically focus on the relationship between individual differences in identification and individual-level performance
We sought to validate the construct of team-level identification (TLI) by exploring intraclass correlations (ICC’s), as well as trends in within-team and between-team variance in identification
We found that TLI marginally predicted systematic team-level variance in individual performance ratings (H3)
Summary
Social identification and team performance literatures typically focus on the relationship between individual differences in identification and individual-level performance. Individual-level variance in identification did not significantly predict subsequent levels of perceived individual performance. These findings support recent calls for social identity to be considered a multilevel construct and highlight the influence of group-level social identification on group-level processes and outcomes, over and above its individual-level effects. While some individuals will identify more than others with any given group, it is true that some groups tend to arouse identification more than others This can be due to a number of factors that occur at. TLI refers to systematic differences between teams in levels of social identification (i.e., variance in identification that is attributed to differences between teams, rather than between individuals)
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