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Discuss the importance of employment for our social identity and psychological well-being

Assuming that one gets eight hours of sleep each night, spends just ½ hour on daily ‘grooming’ activities, 2.5 hours in commute each week, and 40 hours each week at work, that leaves 40% of the total available hours in a week available for discretionary activities. Add a few children and a yard to mow into the mix and that amount drops precipitously. The time that you do have is likely distributed among many other ‘maintenance’-type activities. The clear winner in terms of where time is allocated is the employment relationship. Work takes on far more significance when one considers the economic impact of the weekly activities. As a result of this, much of our psychology well-being is tied up in the nature of our relationships both with our employer and in the workplace in general.

Consequently, the importance of these work relationships has a significant influence on our overall psychological well-being. Through our interactions in the workplace and with others, it is postulated that a great deal of our identity is form. Identity, perhaps loosely defined yet accurately defined as a sort of working perspective on how we feel about ourselves and how we perceive others to feel about us is a key element of our expressed personality.

One theory that elaborates regarding the mechanisms and consequences of this phenomenon is Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory. This theory essentially states that people have a distinct tendency to classify themselves into discernable categories such by varying criteria such as age, race, occupation, organizational affiliation and others. This voluntary self-definition allows the individual to classify their self and to situate themselves within the social environment (Ashforth & Mael 1989, pp. 20-21). Further, the extent to which an individual identifies with a certain category, group or aspect of employment depends in large measure upon the extent to which that individual values that particular aspect (Goldberg 2003, pp. H1). Though the degree to which someone values something is often difficult to objectively ascertain, one can surmise by the easily measured variables of time and economic impact that a person would quite rationally establish a significant portion of their identity based upon one or more aspects of their employment.

Though clearly important to the individual’s definition of self, the social identity theory also has significant importance from the perspective of the employer. For example, the creation and maintenance of personal identities leads to congruence in social identities. These social identities consequently lead to activities that are consistent with these ‘mass identities’ which subsequently form the basis for corporate or departmental culture formation and perpetuation (Ashforth & Mael 1989, p. 20). This feature could well be a key component in the creation and maintenance of a source of competitive advantage for the firm. As Collins & Porras (1994) indicate in their bestseller, Built to Last, a distinct culture is a prominent aspect of top performing organizations. This culture aspect works both to reinforce certain behaviors as well as to discourage others. With regards to ‘fit’ and ‘identity’, a clear and distinct culture helps to both attract individuals who are likely to be a good fit and discourage those who are not.

Additionally, the Social Identity Model serves to give insight to inter-firm behaviors such as that of supervisors to workers. Supervisors are often exhibiting “helping behaviors” to what could be labeled as “troubled employees” or those who are experiencing difficulties in their personal lives that affect their performance or attendance at work (Hopkins 1997, p. 1216). These helping behaviors are partially attributed to behavioral group norms and the adoption of these values. Certainly, this has an effect on the supervisor and the employee but it also has a great impact on the firm by fostering feelings of trust and cooperation. As a result, numerous highly costly incidents can be reduced such as turnover, absenteeism or even the incidence of depression which has been demonstrated to impart a very high cost on productivity as well as healthcare costs (Hopkins 1997, pp.1229-1230).

The Social Identity Theory, according to Van Dick, Wagner, Stellmacher, & Christ (2004), has a number of different aspects by which the identity and subsequent behaviors of an individual are influenced or explained. For example, “identification” in the context of employment has varying perspectives such as one’s own career, the larger organization, the work team and/or possibly the occupational position itself. Additionally, the consequences of this identity expresses itself by four distinct means: cognitive processes, affect or ‘feelings’, evaluative and behavioral (Van Dick, et al 2004, pp. 171).
An additional means by which the importance of one’s identity impacts the individual’s ability to function well in the workplace is in the perception of conflict. The theory of social identity indicates that group membership is an important component of psychological well being and contributes greatly to the interpretation of events. This is especially relevant in conflict as aptly illustrated by Dalton (2003) in which a conflict involving two persons of differing sexes occurs. In this conflict, a “manager” of the sex of the party that will be ‘upheld’ enters and creates the distinct possibility that the other employee will perceive the other two ‘men’ to be confederate cohorts of some nature due to our predisposition to interpret the world consistent with the postulates of the Social Identity Theory (Dalton, M. 2003, p. 7).
In conclusion, the answer to the question posed by the title is simply, “yes”. As a consequence of the time and the economic importance associated with the employment relationship, a part of the one’s self identification is defined through either the workplace or one’s occupation. Consequently, this has significant potential impact upon both the organization and the individual that, in order to maintain good psychological health must be managed benevolently and purposefully.


Works Consulted

Ashforth, B. & F. Mael. (1989). “Social Identity Theory and the Organization”. Academy of Management Review (14), 1, pp. 20-39.

Collins, J. & J. Porras. (1994). Built to Last. Harper-Collins: New York, New York.

Dalton, M. (2003, Fall). “Social Identity Conflict”. MIT Sloan Management Review, pp. 7-8.

Goldberg, C., C. Riordan, & B. Schaffer. (2003). “Missing Pieces in Social Identity Theory: Continuity and Status as Moderators of Similarity”. Academy of Management Best Conference Paper2003 GDO, pp. H1-H6.

Hopkins, K. (1997). “Supervisor Intervention with Troubled Workers: A Social Identity Perspective”. Human Relations (50), 10, pp.1215-1238.