ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the Actualizing Social and Personal Identity Resources (Aspire) model that represents an attempt to uncover and work with multiple levels of employee identity and to use these as a basis for organizational developments at all levels. The Aspire model has accordingly been designed to harness the potential associated with important subgroup social identities. It represents an application of principles drawn from social identity and self-categorization theories. Recent models in the field tend to focus on changing the social structure within which groups operate in order to develop productive social relations. The first structural model of intervention, the decategorization model, argues that the process of categorizing people automatically leads to intergroup hostility. Accordingly, the model argues that conflict will be resolved to the degree that the people involved in it are encouraged to think of themselves as individuals instead of as members of opposing groups.
