An Integrative Framework of Social and Organizational Identities

Previous identity literature has explained identity-enhancing behaviors (IEB) in terms of either macro- (sociological) or micro- (psychological) perspectives. Despite much progress in each area, it has fallen short in exploring the possibility of integrating both perspectives. Thus, this paper aims to construct an integrative framework of macro- and micro- perspectives to better explain identity-enhancing behaviors (IEB). Based on expected and perceived identities, common ground between macro- and micro perspectives, the framework generates six possible patterns among four social and organizational identities. By employing polynomial regression methodology that has the advantage of examining a gap between two measures as an independent variable, we put forth propositions that predict relationships between gaps among social/organizational identities and identity-enhancing behaviors (IEB). We discuss general implications of the framework and its applicability to various contexts.