The Beneficial Effects of Social Identity Protection on the Performance Motivation of Members of Devalued Groups

For members of socially devalued or stigmatized groups, work and educational settings can threaten social identity, inducing the use of coping strategies that lower their motivation (e.g., self-segregation, domain disengagement) rather than improving their position in the social hierarchy. We review a recent research pro-gram on women and ethnic minorities to show that members of these stigmatized groups can maintain their motivation in threatening work and educational con-texts when they are offered ways to protect their social identity. For example, organizations that communicate value for the social identities of women and eth-nic minorities allow members of these groups to focus on success and motivate them to improve their performance on dimensions that increase their social status. Furthermore, social identity protection has important benefits over more individ-ualistic forms of identity protection because it maintains group members ’ concern for their group’s plight, increasing opportunities for successful collective action. The practical implications of this work are discussed. Upon declaring her intention to leave a cushy job with a Fortune 500 company... a youn