Identity leadership and social identification

I’ve just been doing some reading and I’ve discovered a great paper on identity leadership and social identification. Some interesting findings were uncovered:

The study used social network analysis to explore the link between identity leadership and social identification in sport teams over the course of a season:
-      Participants from 23 sport teams reported the extent to which each of their teammates displayed identity leadership and the extent to which these teammates were perceived to identify with the team
-      Analysis was conducted early in the season, and again toward the end of the season

Here’s what was found:
-      Participants who reported team members showing greater identity leadership perceived the same teammates to identify more strongly with the team at both points in the season
-      Identity entrepreneurship early in the season was associated with perceived in-group ties and in-group affect later in the season
-      Identity impresarioship was associated with cognitive centrality
-      Perceptions of in-group ties early in the season were associated with all identity leadership dimensions later in the season

Some conclusions:
-      The relationship between identity leadership and social identification is bi-directional
-      Team members who are perceived to be promoting a sense of ‘us’ among the team are more likely to be perceived as identifying strongly with the team
-      Despite the non-experimental design, the study highlights the potential benefit of team members doing identity leadership to encourage social identification, and the potential importance of building greater in-group ties early in the season

Bruner, M. W., McLaren, C. D., Mertens, N., Steffens, N. K., Boen, F., McKenzie, L., Alexander Haslam, S. & Fransen, K. (2022). Identity leadership and social identification within sport teams over a season: A social network analysis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 59, 102106.

https://t.ly/vY8D