The Developmental Process of Organizational Identification

Abstract

In transferring the concept of "identification" to "organizational identification," the concept as used by psychologists has been altered somewhat and used to denote relationships existing between the individual and this employing organization. March and Sinon have presented one of the most complete efforts to transfer the concept of identification to the formal organization. They argue that 'humans, in contrast to machines, evaluate their own position in relation to the value of others and come to accept the other's goals as their own." Following this line of reasoning, March and Simon link the process of identification with organizational goals to the process of identification with the organizational totality. Thus, Organizational identification is defined as the degree to which the individual accepts the values and goals of an organization as his own and, therefore, becomes emotionally committed to that organization. March and simon's conceptualization of organizational identification is similar to Kelman's identification construct. Consistent with this theme, Atkinson argues that internalization is the process by which aspects of past roles come to be a part of the personality and internalization are the residuals of past learning which has taken place under the exigencies of the role situation. Atkinson further argues that identification refers to a certain process relatively contemporaneous with the behavior or attitude relevant to the intergration of the role-player into his role.