Social comparisons in boundary-spanning work: Effects of community outreach on members' organizational identity and identification - Statistical Data Included

Administrative Science Quarterly, Sept, 2001 by Caroline A. Bartel

Hypothesis 3 (H3): Collective self-esteem will mediate the positive relationship between extent of favorable intergroup comparisons with clients and strength of organizational identification.

Behavioral Implications of Boundary-spanning Work

Boundary-spanning activities potentially have both attitudinal and behavioral implications. Strong levels of identification keep individuals attuned to the survival of the organization, prompting actions that support its collective welfare. This occurs because members' self-concepts are intertwined with the success of the organization, such that they can experience its accomplishments vicariously (Dutton, Dukerich, and Harquail, 1994). To the extent that boundary-spanning experiences affect the strength of members' organizational identification, such activities may, in turn, shape their behavior at work. The present research focuses on three behavioral outcomes previously identified in theories of organizational identification: interpersonal cooperation, work effort, and advocacy participation.

Interpersonal cooperation. Individuals who identify strongly with their work organization tend to perceive a heightened sense of group-based trust and reciprocity, which can lead them to adopt cooperative orientations with other members (Kramer and Brewer, 1986; Kramer, 1991). Kramer (1993) noted that much of the research on cooperation utilizes laboratory experiments designed to simulate cooperation dilemmas commonly found in organizations. Greater emphasis is placed on specific types of collective-action problems (e.g., resource allocation, decision making) than on more mundane forms of interpersonal cooperation common in organizational settings. In contrast, field studies of organizational identification have examined cooperation with the focal organization, such as financial contributions and participation in organizational activities (Mael and Ashforth, 1992; Bhattacharya, Rao, and Glynn, 1995), but not cooperation between members.

To the extent that members' boundary-spanning experiences affect their overall perceptions of identification with an organization, then tendencies to cooperate with other members should be influenced as well. I examine two forms of interpersonal cooperation described by McAllister (1995): assistance and affiliation. Assistance behaviors provide task-based help (e.g., assisting others with difficult assignments), whereas affiliation behaviors help to preserve, maintain, and improve individuals' work relationships (e.g., listening to others' problems and concerns). Together, assistance and affiliation behaviors create a more complete picture of the cooperative acts that members can exhibit on an everyday basis in organizational settings. As members come to identify more strongly with their work organization as a result of their boundary-spanning experiences, they are likely to provide a higher degree of personal and job-related help to other members:

Hypothesis 4 (H4): Boundary-spanning experiences that strengthen members' organizational identification will increase the frequency of their affiliation and assistance behaviors at work.