Search

For a long time, social network literature has focused on network structure and its effects, thereby paying little attention to how networks themselves form, change/evolve and disappear over time. This, however, has started changing recently, as more network scholars are examining network dynamics and its implications for a whole array of organizational phenomena. While this progress is positive, there is still much to be learned about the processes by which network change occurs, how and why this change affects certain outcomes, and how network and actor attributes coevolve over time. The papers in this symposium address these questions in an attempt to further the development of intra-organizational network dynamics research. The research in this symposium draws on a number of different data sets, including a longitudinal study with employees working in a boutique consultancy firm, a study of student teams engaged in a complex business simulation, a field study of employees working across eight divisions of a large government agency, and a study involving time-stamped email data obtained from a healthcare company. Leader identity and advice seeking in organizations. Author: Andrew Parker; Durham U. Business School Author: Christian Waldstrom; Aarhus U. Should I Stay or Leave? The Effect of Workflow Network Change on Employee Turnover. Author: Rohit Subhash Piplani; U. of Connecticut Author: Theresa M. Floyd; U. of Montana Author: Travis Grosser; U. of Connecticut Author: Kristin Cullen-Lester; U. of Mississippi The Coevolution of Conflict Ties and Team Perceptions Author: Semin Park; U. of Iowa Author: Aaron Schecter; U. of Georgia Performing Well, Connecting Well? Star Performers and Peers Network Evolution. Author: Hongzhi Chen; School of Management, Fudan U. Author: Benjamin B. Dunford; Purdue U. Author: Stefano Tasselli; U. of Exeter Business School Author: Wayne Boss; U. of Colorado Loneliness & Friendship: How Networks Shape Perceptions of Loneliness Author: Vinod Kumar Kothapalli; U. at Buffalo School of Management Author: Prasad Balkundi; U. at Buffalo, The State U. of New York Author: Julie Bowker; U. at Buffalo [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we address two important questions regarding the temporal dynamics of star employees. 1) How do star employees' and peers' networks evolve over time? 2) Does star employees' impact on peers' performance change over time? Integrating research on network dynamics and relational work, we argue that there are temporal variations in stars' network evolution and their impacts on peers. Based on personnel and email network data from a health care organization in the United States, we found that internal formal status was positively related to tie creation in stars network and that the proportion of status stars in a group was positively related to tie creation in group members' network. However, both network-expanding effects diminished over time. Further, we found that the proportion of stars in a group had a changing impact --it dampens group members' performance in the short-term yet increases it in the long-term. Overall, this study extends research on talent management and network dynamics, offering important theoretical and practical insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing recognition that non-star performers play a greater than expected role in organizational effectiveness, we know surprisingly little about how so called "B-Performers" add value to firms. Integrating theory from socialization and social capital literatures, we assert that the value of non-star performers comes from their proclivity to develop complex social networks over time following internal job transfers. We derive and test a novel theoretical model of non-star internal mobility and network evolution in a medium sized US healthcare system, leveraging a multi-source, longitudinal data set comprised of email communications and personnel performance records. Supporting our model, we find evidence of a negative association between performance and internal mobility, and that internally mobile employees expand their incoming but not outgoing network ties over time relative to their immobile counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boss (1983) showed that while team-building interventions generally yield short-term success, regression effects occur within less than a year. He introduced Personal Management Interviews (PMIs) to mitigate the regression problem and showed they were efficacious in maintaining positive effects for three years following intervention. The question remains whether such change interventions can be sustained for a longer time period. Thirty-five years after Boss' seminal study, we examine how PMIs can prevent backsliding by continuing to enhance trust and foster a psychologically safe environment. We examine 202 natural teams over periods ranging from 3 months to 29 years. Using responses of 2,310 participants to Friedlander's Group Behavior Inventory and Likert's Profile of Organizational and Performance Characteristics, results indicate that regular PMIs significantly decrease regression effects for as long as 29 years with no additional interventions after team-building meetings. Thus, regular PMIs appear to be valuable for creating enduring organizational change and enhancing team processes and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizenship fatigue is a phenomenon where employees feel tired and worn out from engaging in extra-role behaviors. Previous research applies resource-based theories to argue that citizenship fatigue is caused by resource depletion. We integrate resource-based perspectives from the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and the positive organizational behavior literature to argue that the acquisition and possession of resources can help reduce experiences of citizenship fatigue. Among a sample of 272 healthcare employees from a hospital located in the Southeastern United States, we find that personal resources (e.g., optimism and self-esteem) are associated with lower levels of citizenship fatigue. We also find that the absence of organizational resources (higher levels of understaffing) leads to increases in citizenship fatigue. Although we found that the negative relationship between personal resources and citizenship fatigue was attenuated (i.e., weakened) when understaffing was low, we also found that average levels of citizenship fatigue were lower among these employees. We discuss the implications of our findings in terms of both future research and practical implications. In terms of practice, we highlight the importance of both personal and organizational resources as key mechanisms to limit experiences of citizenship fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpersonal conflict is a persistent barrier to organizational effectiveness in healthcare organizations. For decades, experts have described a "fade out" problem in which dysfunctional attitudes and behavior resurface in the weeks or months following conflict management interventions which bring relationships to the status quo and can ultimately hinder organizational effectiveness. To address the fade out problem, Personal Management Interviews (PMIs) are specifically designed to foster accountability and long term follow up among individuals who have confronted interpersonal conflict and made action plans for overcoming it. Yet to date, little research provides evidence-based guidance about how to properly implement PMIs. We hypothesize that unless PMIs are done consistently, they will not overcome the fade out problem described by scholars and practitioners. In a study of two independent US hospitals, we examine how the consistency of Personal Management Interviews impacts five attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. In support of our PMI consistency hypothesis, we find evidence that citizenship behavior, intention to stay, trust for leaders, team effectiveness and meeting effectiveness are considerably improved when PMIs are held consistently. Importantly, we find no statistical differences on these outcomes between individuals who conduct PMIs inconsistently and those who do not conduct them at all. These findings lead to the conclusion that its not if, but how PMIs are conducted that matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports the 25-year-impact of OD interventions surrounding the merger of a probation department in the public sector. Using a quasi-experimental design, within the framework of Kotter's change model (1995), we evaluate the effectiveness of the OD interventions on a number of attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Results from six data collections evidence considerable improvement on all subscales of the Likert Profile of Organizational and Performance Characteristics and the Group Behavior Inventory, as well as organizational effectiveness and interpersonal trust, while the scores for two comparison groups remained unchanged. Evaluation data from the agency's major clients suggest that the initial merger results endured for 25 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research on pay dispersion continues to pique the interest of scholars, mediational mechanisms linking pay dispersion and outcomes remain understudied. Additionally, most studies at the group level of analysis focus primarily on sports teams. To overcome these limitations, a conditional indirect effects model was proposed and tested using a sample of 676 healthcare employees across 113 workgroups. Three waves of survey data were collected and matched with salary and measures of performance provided by the human resources department. Pay dispersion was negatively and indirectly related to workgroup processes and workgroup performance via pay satisfaction dispersion (i.e., differences in pay satisfaction across workgroup members). Informational justice climate moderated the relationship between pay dispersion and pay satisfaction dispersion such that high levels of informational justice climate attenuated the negative indirect relationship with workgroup outcomes. These findings were robust across six different calculations of pay dispersion and pay variation. Depending on the calculation used for pay dispersion, high levels of informational justice climate not only diminished the negative indirect relationship between pay dispersion and workgroup outcomes but also in some cases created a positive relationship where pay dispersion indirectly contributed to increases in favorable workgroup outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends previous research on third-party consultation interventions by exploring trust and other variables that facilitate conflict resolution while examining several outcomes over time. Data for this 14-year study in an operating room came from self-reports by the participants, behavioral observations by hospital administrators, and hospital records. Results include statistically significant improvement in trust measures, individual and group effectiveness, increased availability of surgical supplies and equipment, reduced physician abuse of scheduling privileges, decreased verbal abuse of nurses by physicians, the elimination of nursing turnover, and a decision by the surgeons to not build an outpatient surgical center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superior organizational performance depends on employees sharing sensitive information--including sharing mistakes and seeking feedback for improvement. Much of the literature has focused on cognitive and social factors that influence knowledge sharing; we focus on perceived organizational emotions that influence sharing sensitive information at work. We explore, specifically, the effects of what we call positive organizational approach emotions--employees' perceived organizational hope, pride, and empathy--on registered nurses' actual behaviors in sharing mistakes with their peers and seeking feedback for improvement in a hospital. Our research advances the emotion-based perspectives of the behavioral strategy literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a panel design and supervisors' rating from a sample of 255 employees, we test the long-term effects of supervisor support (i.e., task and emotional support) on employee in-role performance (i.e., task performance and psychological withdrawal) and extra-role performance (i.e., organizational citizenship behaviors directed toward colleagues and toward the organization). In addition, we test the mediating mechanism (i.e., affective commitment to the supervisor) and a boundary condition (i.e., organizational pride) that moderates the relationship between support and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational effectiveness depends on employees sharing sensitive knowledge including mistakes, best practices, and seeking feedback for improvement. Much of the literature has focused on cognitive and social factors that influence knowledge sharing; we focus on the emotion-based mechanisms of sharing sensitive knowledge and explore, specifically, the effects of employee perceived organizational empathy, safety, and hope--representing various types of perceived organizational emotion--on registered nurses' emotional state of comfort and intent to share sensitive knowledge in a high performance hospital. Our research adds new insights to the literatures on knowledge sharing, psychological safety, and positive organizational scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our main objective was to conceptualize emotion sharing in the organization, develop and test a measure of it, and explore its nomological network. We conducted a panel study over four waves among nurses working in a public hospital and examined the relationship between emotion sharing and employees' identification with the organization. Further, we investigated organizational antecedents (i.e., perceived emotional support) and interpersonal consequences of emotion sharing (OCB-Is, interpersonal targeted citizenship behaviors, and CWB-Is, interpersonal targeted counterproductive behaviors). Doing so, we aimed to provide evidence of the role of employees' emotion-based social interactions for organization identification processes and in-group favoritism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]