Chinese Management Studies

Purpose – Based on self-determination theory and social identity theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of social identity in buffering the effect of working pressure on the identified motivation (a kind of self-determined motivation).

Design/methodology/approach – This was an experimental study. In a simulated work setting, the study operationalized social identity as having participants who perceived their belonging to one particular working unit, and working pressure as task deadline. A 2 (social identity salience: salient vs not salient)× 2 (task deadline: deadline vs no deadline) between-subjects experiment was designed.

Findings – As expected, participants under the condition of task deadline reported less identified motivation, both at the individual and group levels, than did those under the condition without task deadline. Participants under the condition of social identity salient reported more group-based identified motivation than did those under the condition of social identity not-salient. Faced with task deadline, participants whose social identity was salient showed more group-based identified motivation than did those whose social identity was not salient.

Research limitations/implications – This study was carried out in a simulated working situation, which may limit its ecological validity. Future studies have a focus on what will happen in real working contexts and continue to extend the current study theoretically.

Practical implications – The paper's findings suggest that managers motivate employees by emphasizing their perception of group-membership (i.e. social identity). This strategy was consistent with traditional Chinese management thoughts and values.

Originality/value – The paper is original in bridging social identity theory and self-determination theory, and putting forward a group-level-based extension of self-determination theory. The paper establishes the causal relationships among social identity, task deadline and identifies motivation by using an experimental approach.