- Backstory: participants work for a company where there are two ad hoc work teams (red and blue)
- All groups/participants in the study were assigned to the red team
- Given unique job descriptions, created a team poster, and decorated the room in their team colors
- Were told that red team productivity scores would be compared with blue team's scores to enhance motivation

Wake Forest University

- Main Idea: to examine the effect of being in a space with identity cues as opposed to a "lean space" without any identity signaling
- 3 settings for completing exercises: lean space, ingroup decoration, and outgroup decoration

The Research Study (Identity Signaling & Workplace Productivity)

Greenaway K.A., Thai A.H., Haslam S.A., Murphy S.C. (2016). Spaces that signal identity improve workplace productivity. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 15(1), 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000148

Spaces that Signal Identity Improve Workplace Productivity

- Hypothesis 1a: the space with ingroup decorations would enhance performance (productivity and communication) when compared with the lean space
- Hypothesis 1b: the space with outgroup decoration with either increase or decrease performance when compared with the lean space (undetermined) 
- Hypothesis 2a: participants in the ingroup space will feel greater identification with team members when compared with outgroup space
- Hypothesis 2b: in the outgroup space, participants will feel a greater level of competition. The effect of this on performance is unknown

Hypotheses (Identity Signaling & Workplace Productivity)

- 54 university students
- Participants placed in one of three conditions: ingroup space (N = 18), outgroup space (N = 16), or lean space (N = 20)
- Groups composed of 3-4 participants, so there were 5 teams per condition

Participants (Identity Signaling & Workplace Productivity)

Team Creation (Identity Signaling & Workplace Productivity)

- Participants were told they needed to move to a new room because the space had been double booked
- From here, groups were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, where the rooms were designed to look like another group had previously been in the space. Participants were told there was not enough time to redecorate the room before starting the next task
- Ingroup space: previously occupied by red team
- Outgroup space: previously occupied by blue team
-Lean space: undecorated

Space Manipulation (Identity Signaling & Workplace Productivity)

- Baseline Communication Assessment
- Communication and Productivity
- Self-Report Measures

Measures (Identity Signaling & Workplace Productivity)

- Group/Team Outcomes
- Individual Outcomes
- Mediation Effects

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