Without shared identity, group members cannot trust one another enough to delegate.

Evidence

In addition to these basic group processes, I will suggest other mechanisms that follow, directly and indirectly, from shared social identity in emergencies and disasters. Importantly, as well as the motivation to provide support, shared identity leads people to expect support from others who share their social category membership, as well as to trust these others to behave in the collective interest. Expected support is a crucial hinge for a variety of behavioural and psychological outcomes. — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 16 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Conclusions 1, 2, and 3 together imply that if anything will do by itself it will have to be non-egoistic micro-motivation. This will presumably have to be something like ‘thick trust’ - reliance on and between a group of persons in terms of their known dispositions, personal relations, and so on. It is not easy to see how this could be extended beyond a very small society. The only apparent way of taking it beyond that is to identify a particular set of people, a government or elite group, in whom thick trust is invested, and whose activities, example, or regulation serve to sustain cooperative activities throughout the society; but if this is conceivable at all, I find it impossible to see how such a structure could be the basis of our arrangements without an arrant degree of traditionalist or charismatic mystification. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 219 (#complicates, via linked claim)

These contrasting examples demonstrate the way in which the ability to lead depends upon the ability to represent a group consensus which in turn is a product of shared identity (Haslam, Turner, Oakes, McGarty, & Reynolds, 1998). Where there is no group and no consensus every other voice represents a threat to one’s own. But where there is a group and there is a consensus then one voice can speak for all. Thus leaders and followers are bound together in a double sense. First, their relationship is dependent upon the existence of a shared social identity. Second, their relationship is dependent upon an agreement as to what constitutes the consensual group position and who best occupies that position. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 67 (#builds-on, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Leaders lead by representing a consensus that shared identity makes possible. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 67; Thick trust cannot extend beyond small groups except via mystified elite authority — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 219; Shared identity generates expectations of support and trust among group members — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 16

Related

• Leaders lead by representing a consensus that shared identity makes possible. (similarity 0.88)
• Shared identity generates expectations of support and trust among group members (similarity 0.87)
• Leadership requires both shared identity and consensus on who best embodies the group view (similarity 0.86)
• Leadership must be understood as a group process rather than a leader-follower dyad (similarity 0.84)
• Lacking shared identity, group members refuse to delegate and trust others to act (similarity 0.83)
• Leadership is impossible without a pre-existing or manufactured shared social identity (similarity 0.82)
• Shared identity in crowds produces solidarity and expected mutual support. (similarity 0.82)
• Leadership is cognitively framed as a group-level rather than relational process (similarity 0.81)
• People act together because shared identity lets each expect others will join (similarity 0.81)
• Leadership requires shared identity but also active identity entrepreneurship by leaders. (similarity 0.81)
• Leadership structure tracks the strength of shared social identity over time. (similarity 0.81)
• Leaders lack direct power; followership grants them agency. (similarity 0.80)
• Leaders convert social identity into social reality by initiating group and societal structures (similarity 0.80)
• Collective identity shifts personal goals toward the group’s welfare (similarity 0.80)
• Thick trust cannot extend beyond small groups except via mystified elite authority (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Shared identity generates expectations of support and trust among group members #corroborates (0.85) — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 16
• Thick trust cannot extend beyond small groups except via mystified elite authority #complicates (0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 219