A Managerial Perspective on Common Identity-based and Common Bond-based Groups in Non-governmental Organizations. Patterns of Interaction, Attachment and Social Network Configuration

The paper approaches the common identity and common bond theories in analyzing the group patterns of interaction, their causes, processes and outcomes from a managerial perspective. The distinction between identity and bond refers to people’s different reasons for being in a group, stressing out whether they like the group as a whole — identity-based attachment, or they like individuals in the group — bond-based attachment. While members of the common identity groups report feeling more attached to their group as a whole than to their fellow group members and tend to perceive others in the group as interchangeable, in bond-based attachment people feel connected to each other and less to the group as a whole, loyalty or attraction to the group stemming from their attraction primarily to certain members in the group. At this level, the main question concerns with the particularities of common identity-based or common bond-based groups regarding social interaction, the participatory architecture of the group, the levels of personal and work engagement in acting like a cohesive group. In order to address pertinently this issue, the current work focuses on a qualitative research which comprised in-depth (semi-structured) interviews with several project coordinators from non-governmental organizations (NGOs). To make the investigation more complex and clear, the research relies on social network analysis which is indicative of the group dynamics and configuration, highlighting the differences between common identity-based and common bond-based groups.