Moral beacons: Understanding moral character and moral influence

OBJECTIVE

We introduce the concept of moral beacons-individuals who are higher in moral character than their peers and prominent within their social environment-and examine the degree to which moral beacons increase the moral awareness of their peers.

BACKGROUND

Using data from cohorts of students in graduate business education across two universities, we applied theory and methods from organizational behavior, personality psychology, and social networks analysis to test two research questions about moral beacons.

METHOD

We used latent profile analysis of data from personality questionnaires and social network surveys completed by graduate business students at two universities (N = 502) to identify individuals classified as moral beacons. We used peer nominations and an in-class business case discussion exercise to assess moral influence.

RESULTS

Latent profile analysis identified a latent class of moral beacons in our sample. These individuals received more nominations from their peers in end-of-class surveys as guides for moral thought and action and positively impacted the moral awareness of their peers in a discussion of a difficult business case about possible lead poisoning of employees, but did not significantly change their counterparts' moral awareness in a different case.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide promising initial evidence that moral beacons can be distinguished from their peers by both moral character and social prominence and can act as guides for others, at times encouraging greater consideration of the moral aspects of situations and decisions. As these results are the first of their kind, we encourage further replication and investigations of moral beacons and moral influence in other settings.

Consensus-building conversation leads to neural alignment

Conversation is a primary means of social influence, but its effects on brain activity remain unknown. Previous work on conversation and social influence has emphasized public compliance, largely setting private beliefs aside. Here, we show that consensus-building conversation aligns future brain activity within groups, with alignment persisting through novel experiences participants did not discuss. Participants watched ambiguous movie clips during fMRI scanning, then conversed in groups with the goal of coming to a consensus about each clip's narrative. After conversation, participants' brains were scanned while viewing the clips again, along with novel clips from the same movies. Groups that reached consensus showed greater similarity of brain activity after conversation. Participants perceived as having high social status spoke more and signaled disbelief in others, and their groups had unequal turn-taking and lower neural alignment. By contrast, participants with central positions in their real-world social networks encouraged others to speak, facilitating greater group neural alignment. Socially central participants were also more likely to become neurally aligned to others in their groups.

Communication networks and team performance: selecting members to network positions

This study examines how individuals come to occupy communication network positions and the effect of selection processes on group performance. Drawing on the Carnegie perspective and research on communication networks, we compare the performance of groups whose members receive their choice of who occupies which network position to the performance of groups whose members do not receive their choice. We integrate ideas from the Carnegie perspective with the social psychological literature on the recognition of expertise to theorize that when group members choose who occupies which network positions, individuals select themselves and others into network positions that best suit their skillsets. The selection process allows groups to match individual member expertise to network position, thereby improving performance. We test this hypothesis in a laboratory study manipulating how members are assigned to positions in a centralized communication network. We find individuals who communicate more during training are more likely to be chosen as the central member, and that their communication activity explains the effect of choosing the central member on performance. Supplemental analyses suggest that groups allowed to select their central member performed as well as, and often better than, groups whose central member was randomly assigned. Our results contribute to the Carnegie perspective by demonstrating that the intra-team processes that develop a team's network help explain their performance.

Social networks are shaped by culturally contingent assessments of social competence

Cultural outsiders, like immigrants or international students, often struggle to make friends. We propose that one barrier to social connection is not knowing what it means to be socially competent in the host culture. First-year students at a U.S. business school (N = 1328) completed a social network survey and rated their own social competence and that of several peers. International students were rated by peers as less socially competent than U.S. students, especially if they were from nations more culturally dissimilar to the U.S. International students' self-reported competence ratings were uncorrelated with peers' judgments. Social network analysis revealed international students were less central to their peer networks than U.S. students, although this gap was reduced if peers evaluated them as socially competent. Peer-reported competence mediated the effects of international student status on social network centrality. Since learning local norms takes time, we suggest inclusivity will require host communities to define social competence more broadly.

Using passive sensor data to probe associations of social structure with changes in personality: A synthesis of network analysis and machine learning

Social network analysis (SNA) is an increasingly popular and effective tool for modeling psychological phenomena. Through application to the personality literature, social networks, in conjunction with passive, non-invasive sensing technologies, have begun to offer powerful insight into personality state variability. Resultant constructions of social networks can be utilized alongside machine learning-based frameworks to uniquely model personality states. Accordingly, this work leverages data from a previously published study to combine passively collected wearable sensor information on face-to-face, workplace social interactions with ecological momentary assessments of personality state. Data from 54 individuals across six weeks was used to explore the relative importance of 26 unique structural and nodal social network features in predicting individual changes in each of the Big Five (5F) personality states. Changes in personality state were operationalized by calculating the weekly root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) in 5F state scores measured daily via self-report. Using only SNA-derived features from wearable sensor data, boosted tree-based machine learning models explained, on average, approximately 28-30% of the variance in individual personality state change. Model introspection implicated egocentric features as the most influential predictors across 5F-specific models, with network efficiency, constraint, and effective size measures among the most important. Feature importance profiles for each 5F model partially echoed previous empirical findings. Results support future efforts focusing on egocentric components of SNA and suggest particular investment in exploring efficiency measures to model personality fluctuations within the workplace setting.

Shared understanding and social connection: Integrating approaches from social psychology, social network analysis, and neuroscience

Meaningfully connecting with others is critical to the well-being of individuals. What phenomena contribute to and stem from social connection? In this paper, we integrate emerging work that uses neuroimaging and social network analysis with theories that explore the links between shared reality and social connection. We highlight recent work suggesting that the extent to which people have aligned mental processing and shared subjective construals to those around them-as shown by neural similarity-is associated with both objective and subjective social connection. On the other hand, idiosyncrasies are linked to difficulties with social connection. We conclude by suggesting how the links between shared understanding and social connection can be productively used as a framework to study psychosocial phenomena of interest.

Executives’ Prior Employment Ties to Interlocking Directors and Interfirm Mobility

This paper explores how executives’ prior employment ties to interlocking directors, or those who hold additional board seats or executive positions at outside firms, influence individual executive interfirm mobility. As organizational boundary spanners, interlocking directors may be able to influence executive outcomes both within and outside of executives’ current firms. But given natural constraints on internal promotion for executives, we suggest most executives will tend to leverage ties to interlocking directors to access external opportunities, as manifested by movement to outside firms. Analysis of interfirm mobility among a sample of Standard & Poor’s 1500 executives between 2000 and 2014 offer support for this idea. We find a positive association between individual executives’ prior employment ties to interlocking directors and their hazard of movement to outside firms, including to the other firms where these directors serve. At the same time, we argue and find that the strength of this latter relationship will further depend on directors’ competing motivations owing to their specific positions in the focal and interlocking firms. Whereas holding a lead position on the focal firm’s board (i.e., as chairperson or lead independent director) weakens this relationship, holding the position of chief executive officer in the interlocking firm strengthens it. Our theory and findings highlight the unique and important role of interlocking directors in executive interfirm mobility and, in doing so, contribute novel insights regarding how ties to boundary spanners can influence individual outcomes for those to whom they are linked.

Empowerment Mitigates Gender Differences in Tertius Iungens Brokering

Tertius iungens brokering that brings together people who might not otherwise meet is crucial for organizational effectiveness. But we know little about whether and why women and men differ in their propensity to engage in this brokering. Our paper focuses on the origins and mitigation of gender differences in the propensity to bring people together. In study 1, we showed that the Totterdell et al. [Totterdell P, Holman D, Hukin A (2008) Social networkers: Measuring and examining individual differences in propensity to connect with others. Soc. Networks 30(4):283–296] propensity-to-join-others scale that we used in study 2 and the Obstfeld [Obstfeld D (2005) Social networks, the tertius iungens orientation, and involvement in innovation. Admin. Sci. Quart. 50(1):100–130] tertius iungens scale overlapped not only conceptually, but also empirically, and that these measures of tertius iungens were distinct from mediation- and separation-brokering propensities [Grosser TJ, Obstfeld D, Labianca G, Borgatti SP (2019) Measuring mediation and separation brokerage orientations: A further step toward studying the social network brokerage process. Acad. Management Discoveries 5(2):114–136]. In study 2, we used a natural experiment to examine the tertius iungens brokering propensities of 876 identical and 625 fraternal same-sex twins. We found that brokering propensity was lower for women than for men, although the propensity toward sociability in terms of making friends and acquaintances was lower for men. We also found that for women, relative to men, tertius iungens brokering propensity was largely affected by environmental influences, such as the experience of stereotyping and discrimination, rather than representing an inherited disposition. Moreover, the differences between men and women with respect to brokering were mitigated for empowered samples, such as well-educated or entrepreneurial individuals. Our research asks new questions about how environmental pressures and empowerment affect social networking. Gender differences in brokering may be amenable to mitigation through empowering practices that include education and entrepreneurial experience.

When Friendship is Not Mutual: The Influence of Network Centrality Incongruence on Leadership Emergence and Organizational Identification

Integrating balance theory with self-perception theory, we propose that the incongruence between in-degree and out-degree centrality in a friendship network (“centrality incongruence” hereafter) contributes to the emergence of informal leadership. Through leadership emergence, centrality incongruence has a positive and indirect influence on organizational identification. In-degree centrality reflects the extent to which one is sought by others in the group as a friend, whereas out-degree centrality captures the extent to which one sees others as a friend. We surveyed 257 employees from 38 self-management business units at three observation points. Results based on polynomial regression and surface response analysis supported our hypotheses. Besides, the relationship between centrality incongruence and informal leadership emergence was stronger when the in-degree centrality is greater than the out-degree centrality compared to when the out-degree centrality is greater than the in-degree centrality. Our study points out the value of jointly considering in-degree and out-degree centrality in a social network in understanding their effects on leadership emergence and other work outcomes.

The Paradox of Knowledge Networks: Why More Knowledge Does Not Always Make You More Successful

The purpose of this research was to further the understanding of knowledge exchange within organisations by examining how the dyadic relationships between individuals, in terms of the channels of communication used (structural capital), knowledge awareness (cognitive capital), and the quality of their relationships (relational capital), influence opportunities for knowledge exchange (access to advice), and ultimately individual performance. data were analysed using social network analysis to determine individual network centralities, and structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses at the individual level. The findings suggest (1) face-to-face channels with trusted sources are the most preferred method for exchanging sensitive knowledge, (2) knowing where expertise resides and source availability is key to research knowledge exchange, and (3) centrality in knowledge network does not result in uniform increases in individual performance. While technology has the potential to increase the efficiency of knowledge exchange by removing the barriers to same-time, same-place interactions, computer-mediated communication may actually inhibit the exchange of tacit knowledge and advice because of the lean medium of the exchange, negatively impacting performance. Using a network perspective, this study adds to the literature on intra-organisational learning networks by examining how an individual’s use of different communication channels to share knowledge is related to centrality in knowledge networks, and how this impacts individual performance.

At the origin of network centrality: How to design jobs to make employees central

Network centrality is vital for employees to attain superior performance or desired outcomes and yet we still know little of what makes employees develop central positions. A major challenge is that employees feel discomfort forming networks for opportunistic purposes that benefit them directly. This challenge can be overcome once we focus on the requirements raised by jobs. This paper posits that employees will be motivated to form networks in order to acquire the information capacity needed to satisfy the information requirements raised by the characteristics of their jobs. The study explores how the five enriching job characteristics influence the central position an employee occupies in the organizational network. Interestingly, not all job characteristics benefit networks. Evidence shows that task autonomy, task variety and task significance exercise a positive effect on network centrality but task identity and feedback from the job exercise a negative effect. Network centrality then mediates the relationship between job characteristics and performance. While dispositional determinants explain only between 3% and 5% of variance in network centrality, the model presented explains up to 32% of variance, thereby offering a solid answer to the core question of what determines network centrality.

Agreeableness and Its Consequences: A Quantitative Review of Meta-Analytic Findings

Agreeableness impacts people and real-world outcomes. In the most comprehensive quantitative review to date, we summarize results from 142 meta-analyses reporting effects for 275 variables, which represent N > 1.9 million participants from k > 3,900 studies. Arranging variables by their content and type, we use an organizational framework of 16 conceptual categories that presents a detailed account of Agreeableness’ external relations. Overall, the trait has effects in a desirable direction for 93% of variables (grand mean [Formula: see text]). We also review lower order trait evidence for 42 variables from 20 meta-analyses. Using these empirical findings, in tandem with existing theory, we synthesize eight general themes that describe Agreeableness’ characteristic functioning across variables: self-transcendence, contentment, relational investment, teamworking, work investment, lower results emphasis, social norm orientation, and social integration. We conclude by discussing potential boundary conditions of findings, contributions and limitations of our review, and future research directions.

Above and beyond: helping behaviors among nurses in positive and negative reciprocity relationships

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore antecedents of helping behaviors among nurses using a social exchange framework. The paper reports an investigation into the effects of reciprocity, perceived coworker efficacy and stress on active and passive helping behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

To test hypotheses, the authors performed random coefficient modeling on Mplus with data from 155 full-time nurses.

Findings

Nurses were willing to help coworkers regardless of perceived reciprocity levels in the relationship. Rather, their perceptions of the coworker's efficacy and previous behavior predicted helping.

Originality/value

This manuscript contributes to the literature in a number of ways. First, it provides empirical evidence that individuals will suppress or ignore reciprocity norms during an interdependent task. This lends credence to the idea that social exchanges may need to be examined in light of other variables or at other levels of analysis. Second, it demonstrates that investment behaviors (i.e. helping) can and do occur in exchange relationships despite low reciprocity. Overall, the data suggest that individuals are willing to maintain relationships despite a lack of returns.

The Differential Impact of Intrafirm Collaboration and Technological Network Centrality on Employees’ Likelihood of Leaving the Firm

How does an employee’s centrality in intrafirm research and development activities affect the employee’s propensity for outward mobility? Does this proclivity vary by the type of employment the employee seeks: moving to other firms versus founding a new venture? We maintain that, to answer these questions, we must distinguish between an employee’s centrality in the intrafirm collaboration network and the employee’s centrality in the intrafirm technological recombination network. We utilize the curricula vitae and patent data of corporate inventors at a leading semiconductor company between 1993 and 2012 to test our hypotheses. Contrary to prevailing views, our competing risk model indicates that corporate inventors who are central in the intrafirm collaboration and technological network and, thus, have the most opportunities are less likely to leave the current employer. However, when considering external employment opportunities, their preferences vary. Collaboration-central individuals are more likely to start a new venture than to move to another employer. Their skill in developing interpersonal relationships enables them to attract the tangible and intangible resources needed in a new firm. In contrast, inventors whose technological expertise is central to the firm’s technology recombination network are more likely to move to another employer than to start a new venture. In an established firm, they can leverage their technological know-how using the resources that a new venture would lack. Our theory highlights the trade-offs in employees’ attempts to take advantage of their internal and external value based on their position within the firm’s collaboration and technological networks.

The need for research-based tools for personnel selection and assessment in the forensic sciences

The popularity of forensic science television programs has created a hiring challenge for forensic science laboratories. Laboratories receive unprecedented numbers of applicants, yet struggle to identify highly-qualified candidates. Forensic examiners must possess a unique set of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) plus other characteristics. They must be critical thinkers, detail-oriented, decisive, and self-regulated; be able to communicate clearly and effectively within the laboratory, with customers (typically investigators or attorneys), and in the courtroom; and demonstrate the required core competencies. Currently, no validated instruments, standardized job descriptions, or lists of KSAs exist to aid in forensic science personnel recruitment and assessment, often resulting in high turnover leading to costly new recruitment and training cycles. This article describes how industrial/organizational psychology develops methods and tools to improve workforce selection; describes some tools currently in use in forensic science; and advocates for research and development of better tools for use in forensic science.

Stay Humble and Fly High: The Roles of Subordinate Voice and Competitive Work Context in the Linkage Between Leader Humility and Career Success

This study examines the relationship between leaders’ humility and their career success. We propose that humble leaders are more likely to occupy central positions in their subordinate teams’ voice networks where they improve their own performance and gain favorable reward recommendations. We also argue that in seemingly disadvantageous competitive work contexts, humble leaders become more central in the team voice network and increase their career prospects. We found support for these hypotheses in a multisource field study of 116 supervisors, 461 subordinates, and 34 shop managers from a Chinese company and in a vignette-based experiment with 233 working adults. Theoretical and practical implications for career success, leader humility, and voice literature are discussed.

PROACTIVE PERSONALITY AND EMPLOYEES’ INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOURS: THE ROLE OF NETWORK BUILDING ABILITY

The study aims to expand our knowledge of the employees’ innovative behaviours in the service sector by adopting the coevolution theory of the psychological–sociological perspective as the lens in which the study will utilise to investigate the antecedents of each stage of the employees’ innovative behaviours: Idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realisation behaviours. The relation between proactive personality and each stage of employees’ innovative behaviours was tested, focusing on the intermediary role of network building ability. A total of 406 questionnaires from employees working in the service sector were collected and analysed using structural equation modelling. The study findings illustrate the importance of building networks for proactive employees to be able to innovate and demonstrated that different stages of employees’ innovative behaviours may require different antecedents and, therefore, separating the analysis for each stage may enrich our knowledge and enhance our understanding of employees’ innovative behaviours.

Affordance in Socio-Material Networks: A Mixed Method Study of Researchers' Groups and Analog-Digital Objects

In this paper, we argue that we can better understand the relationship between social interaction and materiality by linking qualitative analysis of analog and digital practices, adopting Basov's model of socio-material networks. Our research questions turn about the interrogation of how social links distress the usage of analog and digital objects by researchers. We consider scientific networks with the relationship between researchers and their tools as a three-level social material network. It sheds light on how different types of researchers position their engagement with analog and digital materiality over time and its affordance and emotional attachment. This study contributes to the understanding of researchers' practices that involve new and old techniques and specific and not-specific tools.

Behavioral and neural correlates of social network size: The unique and common contributions of face recognition and extraversion

OBJECTIVES

Humans are inherently social creatures and can gain advantages from larger network size. Researches have shown that different cognitive and personality factors may result in individual differences of social network size (SNS). Here, we focused on whether face recognition ability and extraversion were related to SNS and the neural basis underlying the relations.

METHODS

Behaviorally, we adopted the face-inversion task, NEO personality inventory, and computerized SNS test to explore the relationships between face recognition, extraversion, and SNS. Neurally, we used resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) analysis method to investigate the neural correlates of SNS and then revealed whether face recognition and extraversion were related to SNS relevant brain regions.

RESULTS

We found that individuals with better face recognition ability and more extraverted personality had larger size of social network. In addition, we found that SNS was positively associated with the fALFF in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), right superior temporal sulcus, and precuneus. Interestingly, the fALFF in the vmPFC significantly correlated with face recognition ability.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study suggests that both face recognition and extraversion may be important correlates of SNS, and the underlying spontaneous neural substrates are partially dissociable.

Are skin color and body mass index associated with social network structure? Findings from a male sex market study

Objectives: There is a growing burden of HIV and sex-related diseases in South Asia and India. Sociological research illustrates that key axes of social stratification, such as race and ethnicity, affect social network structure which, in turn, impacts sexual health and wellbeing. Research on networks has increasingly begun to examine the ways in which networks drive or harness sexual behaviors, but has largely neglected the influence of culture and cultural markers in this continuum. Furthermore, much of the existing scholarship has been conducted in the U.S. or in Western contexts.Design: As part of an exploratory effort, we examined how skin color and body mass index (BMI) affected networks among 206 men who have with men (MSM) frequenting sex markets in Hyderabad, India. A novel phone-based network generation method of respondent-driven sampling was used for recruitment. In assessing how skin color and BMI drive these structures, we also compared how these factors contribute to networks relative to two more commonly referenced markers of social difference among Indians, caste and religion.Results: Our findings suggest that skin color and BMI contribute significantly more to network structure than do caste and religion.Conclusions: These findings tentatively illuminate the importance of individual-level heterogeneity in bodily attributes, factors which are seldom considered in conventional approaches to researching how social stratification and health inequalities are animated during the formation of networks.

Cooperation Beyond the Network

It is well known in economics, law, and sociology that reputation costs in a closed network give insiders a feeling of being protected from bad behavior in their relations with one another. A person accustomed to doing business within a closed network is, therefore, likely to feel at unusual risk when asked to cooperate beyond the network because of absent reputation-cost security. It follows that business leaders in more closed networks should be less likely to cooperate beyond their network (Hypothesis 1 ). Success reinforces the status quo. Business leaders successful with a closed network associate their success with the safety of their network, so they should be even less likely to cooperate with a stranger (Hypothesis 2 ). We combine network data from a heterogeneous area probability survey of Chinese CEOs with a behavioral measure of cooperation to show strong empirical support for the two hypotheses. CEOs in more closed networks are less likely to cooperate beyond their network, especially those running successful businesses: successful CEOs in closed networks are particularly likely to defect against people beyond their network. The work contributes to a growing literature linking network structure with behavior: here, the closure that facilitates trust and cooperation within a network simultaneously erodes the probability of cooperation beyond the network, thereby reinforcing a social boundary around the network. Taking our results as a baseline, we close sketching new research on personality, homophily, network dynamics, and variation in the meaning of “beyond the network.”

Bridging Temporal Divides: Temporal Brokerage in Global Teams and Its Impact on Individual Performance

Members of global teams are often dispersed across time zones. This paper introduces the construct of temporal brokerage, which we define as being in a position within a team’s temporal structure that bridges subgroups that have little or no temporal overlap with each other. Although temporal brokerage is not a formal role, we argue that occupying such a position makes an individual more likely to take on more coordination work than other members on the team. We suggest that, while engaging in such coordination work has advantages in the form of enhanced integrative complexity, it also comes with costs in the form of a greater workload relative to other members. We further argue that the increased integrative complexity and workload that result from occupying a position of temporal brokerage have implications that go beyond the boundaries of the focal team, spilling over into other projects the individual is engaged in. Specifically, we predict that being in positions of temporal brokerage on global teams decreases the quantity but increases the quality of an individual’s total productive output. We find support for these predictions across two studies comprising 4,553 individuals participating in global student project teams and 123,586 individuals participating in global academic research teams, respectively. The framework and findings presented in this paper contribute to theories of global teamwork, pivotal roles and leadership emergence in global teams, and social network theory.

Research Trends in Career Success: A Bibliometric Review

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of academic research on professional success, using the bibliometric analysis to understand the evolution of this field between the years 1990 and 2020. The information was obtained from the publications indexed in the Scopus database, under a rigorous bibliometric process that comprises five parts: (i) criteria search of the field, (ii) selection of database and documents, (iii) inclusion and selection criteria, (iv) software and data selection, and (v) analysis and results. The results show professional success as a scientific discipline in full exponential growth, which allows us to consider the main contributions of authors, institutions, and international contributions, as well as to consider the main themes that have shaped the intellectual structure of the subject through their visualization using bibliometric maps of co-citation and co-occurrence, which combined showed eight main lines of research. The results obtained allowed us to identify patterns of convergence and divergence in various topics, which allows obtaining current and diverse information on the state of the research field’s art.

Self-monitoring, self-selection, and prospective employment: individual differences in finding a workplace niche

Self-selection of different employment opportunities was predicted to be a function of dispositional differences in self-monitoring. In two studies, participants read two job descriptions containing attributes that matched the skills and needs of either high self-monitors or low self-monitors. Participants then indicated which job they would accept if offered both jobs and subsequently completed the 25-item Self-Monitoring Scale. Scale responses were used to create univariate/categorical (high vs. low self-monitors) and bivariate/two dimensional (acquisitive, protective) indices of self-monitoring. In Study 1, low self-monitors and high self-monitors chose personally congruent jobs. These divergent choices were observed regardless of the way (univariate model, alternative bivariate model) self-monitoring was assessed. In Study 2, these self-monitoring differences were moderated by job status. These moderated choices of jobs were obtained when self-monitoring was assessed in its conventional and acquisitive (i.e., impression management for gain) forms but not in its protective (i.e., impression management for self-defense) form. In both studies, sex differences did not account for self-monitoring differences. These findings suggest on-the-job differences between high and low self-monitors may represent self-selection processes occurring before job-based experiences.

Temporal Brokering: A Measure of Brokerage as a Behavioral Process

Extant research in organizational networks has provided critical insights into understanding the benefits of occupying a brokerage position. More recently, researchers have moved beyond the brokerage position to consider the brokering processes (arbitration and collaboration) brokers engage in and their implications for performance. However, brokering processes are typically measured using scales that reflect individuals’ orientation toward engaging in a behavior, rather than the behavior itself. In this article, we propose a measure that captures the behavioral process of brokering. The measure indicates the extent to which actors engage in arbitration versus collaboration based on sequences of time stamped relational events, such as emails, message boards, and recordings of meetings. We demonstrate the validity of our measure as well as its predictive ability. By leveraging the temporal information inherent in sequences of relational events, our behavioral measure of brokering creates opportunities for researchers to explore the dynamics of brokerage and their impact on individuals, and also paves the way for a systematic examination of the temporal dynamics of networks.

Network-Biased Technical Change: How Modern Digital Collaboration Tools Overcome Some Biases but Exacerbate Others

Using three years’ data from more than 1,000 employees at a large professional services firm, we find that adopting an expertise search tool improves employee work performance in billable revenue, which results from improvements in network connections and information diversity. More importantly, we also find that adoption does not benefit all employees equally. Two types of employees benefit more from adoption of digital collaboration tools than others. First, junior employees and women benefit more from the adoption of digital collaboration tools than do senior employees and men, respectively. These tools help employees overcome the institutional barriers to resource access faced by these employees in their searches for expertise. Second, employees with greater social capital at the time of adoption also benefit more than others. The tools eliminate natural barriers associated with traditional offline interpersonal networks, enabling employees to network even more strategically than before. We explore the mechanisms for these differential benefits. Digital collaboration tools increase the volume of communication more for junior employees and women, indicating greater access to knowledge and expertise than they had before adoption. The tools also decrease the volume of communication for people with greater social capital, indicating more efficient access to knowledge and expertise. An important implication of our findings is that digital collaboration tools have the potential to overcome some of the demographic institutional biases that organizations have long sought to change. It does so, however, at the expense of potentially creating new biases toward network-based features—a characteristic we call “network-biased technical change.”

Why Do High-Status People Have Larger Social Networks? Belief in Status-Quality Coupling as a Driver of Network-Broadening Behavior and Social Network Size

Previous research has demonstrated that the size and reach of people’s social networks tend to be positively related to their social status. Although several explanations help to account for this relationship—for example, higher-status people may be part of multiple social circles and therefore have more social contacts with whom to affiliate—we present a novel argument involving people’s beliefs about the relationship between status and quality, what we call status-quality coupling. Across seven separate studies, we demonstrate that the positive association between social status and network-broadening behavior (as well as social network size) is contingent on the extent to which people believe that status is a reliable indicator of quality. Across each of our studies, high- and low-status people who viewed status and quality as tightly coupled differed in their network-broadening behaviors, as well as in the size of their reported social networks. The effect was largely driven by the perceived self-value and perceived receptivity of the networking target. Such differences were significantly weaker or nonexistent among equivalently high- and low-status people who viewed status as an unreliable indicator of quality. Because the majority of participants—both high- and low-status—exhibited beliefs in status-quality coupling, we conclude that such a belief marks an important and previously unaccounted-for driver of the relationship between status, network-broadening behaviors, and social networks. Implications for research on social capital, advice seeking, and inequality are highlighted in the discussion section.

Personality traits and bricolage as drivers of sustainable social responsibility in family SMEs: A COVID‐19 perspective

Motivated by the social and environmental challenges resulting from the COVID‐19 pandemic, this research examines the influence of the “big five” personality traits; extroversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism on sustainable social responsibility with a mediating role of bricolage. We collected empirical evidence from 245 family‐owned SMEs. The results indicate that the personality traits do not directly influence sustainable social responsibility, although the traits (except extroversion) influence bricolage. Moreover, we found that open, conscious, and agreeable personalities indirectly contribute to sustainable social responsibility, with bricolage as a mediator. Our findings encourage enterprises to focus on those personality traits during crises (especially COVID‐19) that empower people to effectively manage existing resources (e.g., bricolage) and protect their stakeholders. Family‐owned SMEs need to assign resource utilization tasks to family members having personalities of openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism because these kinds of people have high capacities for bricolage.

Perceived Centrality in Social Networks Increases Women's Expectations of Confronting Sexism

This article integrates the study of intergroup relations and social network cognition, predicting that women who occupy central (vs. peripheral) advice network positions are more likely to confront a coworker’s gender-biased comment. Study 1 offers correlational evidence of the predicted link between perceived advice network centrality and confronting among employed women, uniquely in advice (but not communication) networks. Study 2 replicates and investigates two possible mechanisms—perceptions of the situation as public and perceived risk of confronting. Study 3 rules out order effects and tests an additional mechanism (expectations of the network members). Study 4 is an experiment that shows people expect central (vs. peripheral) women to confront more, even when she is lower (vs. equal) power. Study 5 replicates the core hypothesis in retrospective accounts of women’s responses to real workplace gender bias. Study 6 compares multiple potential mechanisms to provide greater insight into why centrality reliably predicts confrontation.

Personality and emerging adults' friend selection on social networking sites: A social network analysis perspective

Personality affects how emerging adults select friends and how they are selected on social networking sites (SNSs). Big Five personality traits and frequency of contacts on SNSs were collected from 160 college freshmen (M = 18 years) under a round-robin design over 2 months. Using social network analyses, we examined how personality and dyadic similarity affect online friend selections among new acquaintances. Our results show that people with high extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness and low openness selected more friends, verifying both the social enhancement hypothesis and the social compensation hypothesis. People with low extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism and high openness were selected as online friends more often. Only openness dissimilarity had a salutary effect. We discuss the role of personality in social networking friend selection.

Enhancing Internal Learning in Teams: The Role of Network Centrality and Psychological Capital of Undergraduate Students

This study aims to analyze the mediating role of psychological capital (PsyCap) in the relationship between network centrality and internal learning in teams. A questionnaire was administered to 480 undergraduate students to test this relationship. The results confirmed the positive relationship between network centrality and internal learning in teams, and a mediating role of PsyCap in the relationship between student network centrality and internal learning in teams. This study suggests that it is important to promote centrality in advice networks among undergraduate students. In addition, this study might raise awareness among students, teachers, and public policymakers about the need to promote a socially responsible environment in higher education institutions.

THE INFLUENCE OF NETWORK BUILDING ON THE INNOVATIVE WORK BEHAVIOUR OF SELF-MONITORING INDIVIDUALS: INTEGRATING PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL CAPITAL PERSPECTIVES

Network building ability is an important skill that has positive implications for individuals’ innovative work behaviour. Although high self-monitors are capable of building strategic relationships, little is known about how this capability helps these individuals innovate in service organisations, particularly generating, promoting and realising innovative ideas. We proposed that network building ability may act as an important mediator through which self-monitoring links to innovative work behaviour. Using structural equation modelling to analyse 417 completed questionnaires from employees in the United Arab Emirates service sector, we found that high self-monitors were more likely to have high network building abilities, which in turn help support their innovative work behaviour. The evidence suggests that network building ability fully mediates the relationship between self-monitoring and idea generation and idea promotion, while partially mediating the relationship between self-monitoring and idea realisation. We discuss the theoretical contributions and managerial implications of the study.

Out of Sync, Out of Society: Political Beliefs and Social Networks

Who is more likely to be isolated from society in terms of political beliefs? To answer this question, we measure whether individuals' beliefs are "out of sync" - the extent to which their views differ with their contemporaries - and examine how the level of synchronization is associated with the size of important-matter and political-matter discussion networks. The results show that people with weaker belief synchronization are more likely to have smaller important-matter discussion networks. However, additional analyses of political-matter discussion networks show that weaker belief synchronization is associated with smaller networks only among those without a high school diploma and even provides some advantage in maintaining larger networks for the college-educated. Overall, the results imply that political beliefs that are "out of sync" correspond to the individual being "out of society," whereas the aspects of "out of society" are quite different among educational groups.

Effects of social network diversity in the disablement process: a comparison of causal inference methods and an outcome-wide approach to the Indonesian Family Life Surveys, 2007-2015

BACKGROUND

Social networks (SN) have been proven to be instrumental for healthy aging and function as important safety nets, particular for older adults in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite the importance of interpreting health outcomes in terms of SN, in many LMICs - including Indonesia - epidemiological studies and policy responses on the health effects of SN for aging populations are still uncommon. Using outcome-wide multi-method approaches to longitudinal panel data, this study aims to outline more clearly the role of SN diversity in the aging process in Indonesia. We explore whether and to what degree there is an association of SN diversity with adult health outcomes and investigate potential gender differences, heterogeneous treatment effects, and effect gradients along disablement processes.

METHODS

Data came from the fourth and fifth waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey fielded in 2007-08 and 2014-15. The analytic sample consisted of 3060 adults aged 50+ years. The primary exposure variable was the diversity of respondents' SN at baseline. This was measured through a social network index (SNI), conjoining information about household size together with a range of social ties with whom respondents had active contact across six different types of role relationships. Guided by the disablement process model, a battery of 19 outcomes (8 pathologies, 5 impairments, 4 functional limitations, 2 disabilities) were included into analyses. Evidence for causal effects of SN diversity on health was evaluated using outcome-wide multivariable regression adjustment (RA), propensity score matching (PSM), and instrumental variable (IV) analyses.

RESULTS

At baseline, 60% of respondents had a low SNI. Results from the RA and PSM models showed greatest concordance and that among women a diverse SN was positively associated with pulmonary outcomes and upper and lower body functions. Both men and women with a high SNI reported less limitations in performing activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL (IADL) tasks. A high SNI was negatively associated with C-reactive protein levels in women. The IV analyses yielded positive associations with cognitive functions for both men and women.

CONCLUSIONS

Diverse SN confer a wide range of strong and heterogeneous long-term health effects, particularly for older women. In settings with limited formal welfare protection, intervening in the SN of older adults and safeguarding their access to diverse networks can be an investment in population health, with manifold implications for health and public policy.

Friendship network mechanisms linking emotional intelligence and subjective well-being: Beyond a mediation model

This study examined whether the status (central or peripheral position) of individuals in a friendship network and the quality of a friendship network represent key mechanisms in determining how emotional intelligence is associated with subjective well-being. Using data collected from 217 Chinese senior undergraduates, we found that the interaction of the quality of a friendship network and a peripheral position in a friendship network mediated relations of emotional intelligence with subjective well-being. Although a central position in a friendship network did not interact with the quality of a friendship network, it did mediate the relations of emotional intelligence with subjective well-being on its own. The findings expand the growing body of research findings on the association between emotional intelligence and subjective well-being by investigating the role of friendship networks and highlight the importance of a network perspective in understanding the association.