Handbook of Management Scales/Collective identification

Description
Based on different field samples, new measurements are developed for relational identification and collective identification, as two types of group identification (= employee identification developed in organizational workgroups).

Definition
When people’s experience within a workgroup plays an important role in shaping their self-concept, they develop identification with the workgroup (= group identification).

Collective identification refers to the degree to which one includes group membership and shared characteristics of the group in one’s self-concept.

Items
I feel strongly identified with this workgroup because ...
 * This group offers me many career opportunities. (0.74)
 * This group provides experiences essential to my career success. (0.72)
 * This group provides me with a good chance of promotion. (0.70)
 * This group is considered as a high-status professional group. (0.64)
 * This group receives little attention from the top managers of the organization (reverse-coded). (0.62)
 * This group is a key unit of the organization. (0.56)
 * This group does not achieve success (reverse-coded). (0.55)

Source

 * Zhang et al. (2014): Relational Versus Collective Identification Within Workgroups: Conceptualization, Measurement Development, and Nomological Network Building. Journal of Management, Vol. 40, No. 6, pp. 1700–1731

Comments
Strictly speaking, the word "because" in the introductory half-sentence makes the measurement of the items formative rather than reflective; this half-sentence might thus be re-worded in future studies. The reverse-coded items do not seem to fit well to the introductory half-sentence. The mean of the scale was relatively large (study 1: 4.88, study 2: 5.06); given that a 7-point scale was used and the "ideal" mean of such a scale would be 4, words like "very" or "always" might be included in future studies to shift the mean towards this ideal value. The factor loadings of the last two items are relatively low.

Related Scales

 * Relational identification