When Green Corp.recently acquired Orange Corp.,employees in each company began to privately complain about the behaviour and performance of employees at the other organization.For example,Orange employees would claim that Green employees lacked customer service skills,whereas Green employees claimed that they were more responsive to customer needs.Employees would also label each other by their former colour ('She's a Greenie').This incident mainly describes which of the following concepts?
A) Social identity theory
B) Self- enhancement
C) Corporate identification theory
D) Disagreeableness trait
E) None of these

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The incident described in the passage is an example of social identity theory, which explains how people form their sense of identity based on the groups and organizations they belong to. The employees in Green Corp. and Orange Corp. have formed an in-group/out-group dynamic based on their organization's identity, and they are using this to make judgments about each other's behaviour and performance. The use of color labels ("Greenie") shows that people are categorizing themselves and others based on group membership.