Critical perspectives on social identity, work, and organization

Parisa Dashtipour, Matthew McDonald and Lan Thi Nguyen

Chapter 10 in Handbook of Critical Work and Organizational Psychology, 2026, pp 165-186 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter analyzes social identity in relation to work and organizations from a critical theoretical perspective. It focuses on social identity theory (SIT), which has become one of the most dominant perspectives in the study of organizational behavior. Despite its obvious utility, social identity theory's roots in experimental and survey-based methods and the prominence of social cognition present several problems when interpreting the complex nature of identity in and around work and organizations. We focus on three problematic areas within the organizational and workplace SIT research: cognitivism and dualism, downplaying emotional aspects of identity, and functionalism and the foreclosing of power and ideology in shaping identity. The chapter points to alternative critical approaches to identity processes at work and in organizations. It concludes by proposing that critical work and organizational psychology should focus on the link between identity and ideology, while prioritizing the study of subjectivity.

Keywords: Discourse; Emotion; Ideology; Power; Social Identity; Subjectivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035331055
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