When Professional Identification Backfires in Multidisciplinary Teams: Normative Embeddedness and Profession Status Hierarchy

Abstract: Professional identification is typically treated as an beneficial resource for individuals and teams. Yet, we propose that these teams are structured by a profession status hierarchy, such that professional norms are not merely different but unevenly valued, creating latent tensions over whose knowledge is legitimate. We reconcile this tension by proposing that professional identification can backfire by increasing normative embeddedness in professionally grounded expectations about how work should be done. We argue that normative embeddedness narrows openness to others’ perspectives and reduces individual performance, especially when there is a strong profession status hierarchy. In a field study of 255 U.S. Air Force officers in 57 multidisciplinary teams, professional identification negatively predicted openness when hierarchy was strong (but not weak), and openness predicted peer- and leader-rated performance. These effects were driven by normative embeddedness, not in-group bias or groupthink, highlighting when professional identification backfires in multidisciplinary teams and why.

Keywords: identification, multi-disciplinary teams, embeddedness, openness