Defining and Measuring Employees’ Identification with Their Work Groups

The objective of this study was to develop a conceptually and methodologically sound measure of employee identification with the work group. A three-phase analysis approach was used. First, a content analysis was conducted with subject matter experts (SMEs) in the field of organizational behavior and psychology. Second, an exploratory factor analysis of the factor structure was conducted using a sample of employees from a credit union ( N = 140). Finally, confirmatory analyses using LISREL 8 were conducted with a sample of employees derived from four insurance organizations ( N = 309). The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the factor structure of the identification measure and the scale scores showed acceptable levels of internal consistency in both samples ([.alpha] = .78; [.alpha] = .79, respectively). We also demonstrated that the construct of work group identification is distinct from but related to both work group cohesiveness and work group communication.