This book is an exciting landmark for a process that has been gathering momentum for a number ofyears. Since about 1970, social identity theory has developed, within social psychology, as an increasingly influential perspective on group processes, intergroup relations, and the collective self. Social
identity researchers have largely focused on intergroup relations, prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, collective action, and other such behaviors. In 1989 Ashforth and Mael published an influential article, in Academy ofManagement Review, entitled Social Identity Theory and the Organization that introduced social identity theory to organizational psychologists. Organizational psycholo- gists have not turned back; rather, they have found social identity ideas very useful in a growing focus on organizational commitment, organizational identi- fication, and so forth. Social identity theorists started paying systematic atten- tion to organizational contexts a few years ago-a trend which has gathered momentum. And yet, there has been only very limited interaction between or- ganizational and social psychologists who employ and develop social identity theory to understand organizational behavior. The two groups seem to have rarely met. This book is an attempt to remedy this situation and to provide an integrative platform on which new developments can be founded.