Social identity theory focuses on aspects of a person’s
self-concept that has group membership (Tajfel 1981) as
its basis. It leads to the development of gender, racial and
cultural identity through socialisation and internalisation
(Korostelina, 2007). Identifying with members of the ingroup
elicits a similarity bias, a typical outcome of which
is favouritism and interpersonal attraction towards
demographically similar individuals. The similarityattraction
paradigm demonstrates how people relate to one
another because of their social identities. They form cliques
around identity membership. Therefore, demographically
similar organisational members enjoy important benefits,
like supportive supervision