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Toxic Positivity and the Workplace Family: Understanding Small Business Culture Through Social Identity Theory

Alli Forrester

Journal of Small Business Strategy2026https://doi.org/10.53703/001c.157797article
ABDC C
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

Companies sometimes present themselves to employees as a “workplace family” to gain buy-in and foster a sense of belonging. Workplaces that do this, however, can often have some toxic components. This theoretical paper reviews the concept of “workplace families” as a way to strategically and internally brand the company to its employees, fostering a culture that could lead to toxic positivity. This could lead to potential detrimental side effects for the employees and the company as a whole. This paper uses social identity theory as a lens to review an internal branding and toxic positivity model, potentially exploring some of the impacts it may have in small or medium-sized businesses. The idea is to steer companies away from creating a “workplace family” and to create a true environment that focuses on respect and success.

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Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.53703/001c.157797

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{alli2026,
  title        = {{Toxic Positivity and the Workplace Family: Understanding Small Business Culture Through Social Identity Theory}},
  author       = {Alli Forrester},
  journal      = {Journal of Small Business Strategy},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.53703/001c.157797},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.