Toward a contingency framework of interpersonal influence in organizational identification diffusion

Drawing from the social information processing approach, the authors develop a contingency framework that captures organizational identification (OI) diffusion through two key interpersonal influencers, supervisors and expert peers. In two multi-level studies in two countries, results consistently show that supervisors’ and expert peers are important influencers of OI diffusion because their OI is positively related to frontline employees’ OI. As the focal employee’s organizational tenure increases, the lateral OI transmission from expert peers grows stronger while the downward OI transmission from supervisors grows weaker. Work-group OI diversity weakens both the downward and the lateral transmission. A time-lagged analysis further validates the temporal order of these processes. OI in turn predicts frontline employees’ objective performance. The authors discuss theoretical and managerial implications.

► Organizational identification (OI) research largely ignores the role of peers.
► A framework of OI diffusion via supervisors, expert peers is proposed and tested.
► Tenured employees’ OI is more (less) influenced by experts’ (supervisors’) OI.
► Work-group OI diversity weakens OI diffusion.
► Additional analyses validate the temporal order and stability of OI diffusion.