Teaming Up, Together or Apart? 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 of workplaces and workers' preferences in political economy, economic sociology, and management. It develops 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 favor 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 some perceive partisan and Brexit identities as signals 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.