As scholar-practitioners, we learn not only from our own experience but, importantly, also from the work of other practitioners, researchers and theoreticians.

As scholar-practitioners, we learn not only from our own experience but, importantly, also from the work of other practitioners, researchers and theoreticians. By learning from others, we leverage their experience to improve our work. Critically analyzing and evaluating conflict and conflict resolution work and making connections with personal thinking, experience and practice is critical to distinguishing and incorporating others’ work into our mental models and practice. Reading Reaction assignments provide practice in critical reading and explicitly making connections to personal knowledge and experience to further develop critical skills as a scholar-practitioners.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to…

• Critically analyze a conflict or conflict resolution resource to identify themes and key ideas
• Identify points of convergence and divergence between personal mental models, experience and practice and those of others

Details

The assigned reading for this module’s Reading Reaction is:

• Ashforth, B. E., & Mael, F. (1989). (ATTACHED). The Academy of Management Review, 14(1), 20.

Social identity theory underlies a significant amount of research and theorizing around group and intergroup behavior and dynamics. The ground-breaking and often cited article by Ashforth and Mael (1989) applies the theory to organizational contexts, arguing that organizational identification is a specific form of social identification with implications for both the individual and the organization. Although the article can be dense and somewhat technical, the authors offer a fine example of teasing apart often conflated social-psychological constructs and applying the ideas to a context we’ve all experienced whether in a corporation, non-profit, small business or even as a student in a school or university. Over the past 30 years, the research on the implications of social identity in organizational contexts has been robust in exploring organizational behavior, leadership, organizational citizenship, intergroup behavior, and so forth.

Writing Prompts

This written reaction should contextualize and apply key ideas, theory, and skills from the reading to your experience in thinking about and addressing conflict. Please read the chapter thoroughly before responding to the following prompts:

• Identify & describe 3 main ideas of the article
• Describe how these main ideas connect to your thinking and experience in addressing conflict, including insights gained through your critical reading.
• Identify two questions that have emerged for you during this analysis and evaluation process.

Submissions should be a maximum of 500 words. Use in-text citations and include a Reference list at the end of your post.