Mapping Emotional Pathways to Social Identity in Hybrid Work: A Computational Model for Organizational Cohesion

This study develops an integrated computational model to illuminate the micro-dynamics through which transient emotional contagion evolves into stable social identity within organizations, with a specific focus on hybrid work environments. Drawing on organizational psychology and employing an agent-based modeling approach, we formalize a four-stage process-Emotional Cycle, Emotional Memory Accumulation, Cognitive Formation, and Enhancement Effect-that captures how fleeting affective experiences coalesce into enduring group identification. Our simulations reveal that cognitive heterogeneity moderates this pathway, leading to slower but more robust identity formation. Gender differences emerge as significant, with females demonstrating higher susceptibility to emotional contagion, while males' identification is more strongly influenced by issue relevance. Crucially, exploratory simulations contrasting high- and low-hybridity configurations demonstrate that dispersed, digitally mediated work attenuates the emotional feedback loop, slows consensus formation, and heightens the risk of sub-group silos, thereby fundamentally reshaping the identity formation pathway. This research provides a mechanistic explanation of the emotional foundations of organizational culture and offers managers an evidence-based, dynamic framework for strategically cultivating collective identity in an increasingly hybrid world.