Political Identities and the Politics of Workplace Cooperation

Do political identities influence workers' willingness to cooperate at work? Do workers prefer copartisans over outpartisans as colleagues even at the expense of competence? This article bridges the affective polarization literature with studies in political economy, economic sociology, and management to develop a theory on how political identities permeate modern workplaces, where collaboration and non-cognitive skills are essential. An original survey experiment conducted in the United Kingdom reveals that workers avoid close collaboration with outpartisans and favour copartisans. While highly competent workers are generally preferred, their favorability drops significantly if they are outpartisans. A new measure of affective polarization at work, based on open-ended survey items, suggests that many respondents view partisan and Brexit identities as indicators of non-cognitive skills valued in colleagues. More broadly, this article contributes to our understanding of the challenges to workplace cooperation in knowledge economies with significant levels of affective polarization.