A Study on Belonging Theory and the Importance of Belonging in Businesses

Research to understand the place of individuals within groups, communities, or social structures has been one of the cornerstones of the social sciences. In this context, the theory of belonging, which examines how individuals relate to social structures and groups, is one of the most interesting and important approaches in this field. The sense of belonging has been intertwined with human strategies for staying, surviving, and reproducing as social beings since the early stages of evolution. The integration of humans into communities has profound effects at both the individual and societal levels. This research aims to take a journey into the depths of the subject by addressing the foundations of the theory of belonging, the importance of the positioning of the individual within the community, and the contributions of this theory to the social sciences. In this context, it discusses in detail the approaches that fed the theory and how it arrived at the form of a theory. The paper then examines how belonging at the organizational level affects organizations and tries to show how benefits can be derived from these effects. These results suggest that the cost of promoting employees' sense of belonging to the organisation is lower compared to the performance to be achieved, but companies may avoid incurring these costs. In addition, the effect of higher-than-expected levels of employee identification on long-term performance is debatable.