Research

Abstract

Growing evidence points to the corrosive influence of partisanship on society. We examine the relationship between “receptiveness to opposing views” (i.e., an individual difference in the willingness to engage with information from opposing perspectives) and the propensity to form positive and close collaborative relationships with ideologically opposed others. Across three studies varying in sampling and methodological approaches—a retrospective network study, a time-lagged field study, and an experiment—we find that individual and mutual receptiveness mitigate the negative influence of ideological opposition on relationship formation and willingness to collaborate. We find evidence that receptiveness is distinctively influential as compared to related personality characteristics (e.g., extraversion, self-monitoring, agreeableness, openness, and intellectual humility). These findings contribute to our understanding of how individual differences shape social network formation and collaboration across ideological divides.

“Friends on the Other Side: Receptiveness to Opposing Views Predicts Formation of Politically Heterogeneous Relationships.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. [Pre-Registration; Code]

Abstract

Shifting attachments to organizations are a constant in the modern era. What accounts for variation in the strength of organizational identification? Whereas prior work has emphasized organization-level properties and individual differences, this article instead highlights the role of network-structural positions. Distilling insights from prior work on networks and identity, the authors propose that organizational identification strength is positively related to network cohesion—having contacts who are mutually interconnected. Departing from prevailing accounts, they further propose that identification strength also varies via network range—having contacts who inhabit a broad range of network communities. Using the tools of computational linguistics to develop a language-based measure of identification, they find support for the theory using pooled data of internal communications from three organizations.

“Locally Ensconced and Globally Integrated: How Network Cohesion and Range Relate to a Language-Based Model of Group Identification.” American Journal of Sociology 131(1): 149-199. [Data and Code]

Abstract

Organizational survival and success depend on having members who have a shared understanding about the enterprise’s purpose and strategy. Organizations therefore invest heavily in the selection and socialization of new members. Since the public release of generative artificial intelligence based on large language models (GAI) in 2022, organizational leaders have been grappling with foundational questions about how this new technology will reshape these core activities. Although it is difficult to make precise predictions amid ongoing technological ferment, here we offer informed guesses about the trajectory of GAI-driven change in organizational selection and socialization. To organize our predictions, we draw on three key conceptual distinctions. First, we distinguish between the ability of GAI to select and socialize individuals who are internally committed to organizationally desirable values, versus individuals who only perform these values. Our second distinction pertains to the cross-pressures of fitting in versus standing out within organizations. Third, we distinguish between how GAI is adopted initially, and responses to these configurations by strategic actors, which we refer to as “second order effects.” Based on these distinctions, we array our predictions across three phases, with each new phase a response to the tensions and dissatisfactions of a preceding one.

“The Promise and Peril of Generative AI for Organizational Selection and Socialization.” Forthcoming: Journal of Organization Design.

Publication:

Abstract

Dehumanization of others has been attributed to institutional processes that spread dehumanizing norms and narratives, as well as to individuals’ denial of mind to others. We propose that blatant dehumanization also arises when people actively contemplate others’ minds. We introduce the construct of imagined otherness—perceiving that a prototypical member of a social group construes an important facet of the social world in ways that diverge from the way most humans understand it—and argue that such attributions catalyze blatant dehumanization beyond the effects of general perceived difference and group identification. Measuring perceived schematic difference relative to the concept of America, we examine how this measure relates to the tendency of U.S. Republicans and Democrats to blatantly dehumanize members of the other political party. We report the results of two pre-registered studies—one correlational (N = 771) and one experimental (N = 398)—that together lend support for our theory. We discuss implications of these findings for research on social boundaries, political polarization, and the measurement of meaning.

“Imagined Otherness Fuels Blatant Dehumanization of Outgroups.” Communications Psychology 2(39): 1-14. [Pre-Registration; Data and Code]

Abstract

How do people establish and maintain cultural fit with an organization? Prior research has offered two perspectives that have heretofore been conceptually disconnected. One focuses on personal values, whereas another emphasizes perceptions of the cultural code. We develop a theoretical account that integrates these approaches by linking them to distinct mechanisms and behavioral consequences of cultural fit. We propose that value congruence—the match between one’s values and those that prevail in an organization—relates to the mechanism of group attachment and shapes behavior when one periodically steps back from day-to-day interactions, assesses one’s identification with an organization, and determines whether to stay or voluntarily depart. In contrast, we argue that perceptual congruence—the degree to which one implicitly understands an organization’s prevailing values and norms—relates to the mechanism of interpersonal coordination and influences behavior when one engages in routine peer interactions. Accordingly, we theorize that these two forms of cultural fit relate to distinct behaviors, voluntary exit and linguistic conformity with peers, respectively. Drawing on email and survey data from a midsized technology firm, we find support for our theory and discuss the implications of our findings for research on person-culture fit, dual-process models of culture and cognition, and the pairing of surveys with digital trace data.

“Two-Sided Cultural Fit: The Differing Behavioral Consequences of Cultural Congruence Based on Values Versus Perceptions.” Organization Science 35(1): 71-91.

Abstract

Where do prescient ideas—those that initially challenge conventional assumptions but later achieve widespread acceptance—come from? Although their outcomes in the form of technical innovation are readily observed, the underlying ideas that eventually change the world are often obscured. Here we develop a novel method that uses deep learning to unearth the markers of prescient ideas from the language used by individuals and groups. Our language-based measure identifies prescient actors and documents that prevailing methods would fail to detect. Applying our model to corpora spanning the disparate worlds of politics, law, and business, we demonstrate that it reliably detects prescient ideas in each domain. Moreover, counter to many prevailing intuitions, prescient ideas emanate from each domain’s periphery rather than its core. These findings suggest that the propensity to generate far-sighted ideas may be as much a property of contexts as of individuals

“A Deep Learning Model of Prescient Ideas Demonstrates that They Emerge from the Periphery.” PNAS Nexus 2(1): 1-11.

Abstract

How do organizations reconcile the cross-pressures of conformity and differentiation? Existing research predominantly conceptualizes identity as something an organization has by virtue of the products or services it offers. Drawing on constructivist theories, we argue that organizational members’ interactions with external audiences also dynamically produce identity. We call the extent to which such interactions diverge from audience expectations performative atypicality. Applying a novel deep-learning method to conversational text in over 90,000 earnings calls, we find that performative atypicality leads to an evaluation premium by securities analysts, paradoxically resulting in a negative earnings surprise. Moreover, performances that correspond to those of celebrated innovators are received with higher enthusiasm. Our findings suggest that firms that conform to categorical expectations while being performatively atypical can navigate the conflicting demands of similarity and uniqueness, especially if they hew to popular notions of being different.

“Doing Organizational Identity: Earnings Surprises and the Performative Atypicality Premium.” Administrative Science Quarterly 68(3): 781-823. [Data and Code]

Abstract

Cognitive differences can catalyze social learning through the process of one-to-one social influence. Yet the learning benefits of exposure to the ideas of cognitively dissimilar others often fail to materialize. Why do cognitive differences produce learning from interpersonal influence in some contexts but not in others? To answer this question, we distinguish between cognition that is expressed—one’s public stance on an issue and the way in which supporting arguments are framed—and cognition that is latent—the semantic associations that underpin these expressions. We theorize that, when latent cognition is obscured, one is more likely to be influenced to change one’s mind on an issue when exposed to the opposing ideas of cognitively dissimilar, rather than similar, others. When latent cognition is instead observable, a subtle similarity-attraction response tends to counteract the potency of cognitive differences—even when social identity cues and other categorical distinctions are inaccessible. To evaluate these ideas, we introduce a novel experimental paradigm in which participants (a) respond to a polarizing scenario; (b) view an opposing argument by another whose latent cognition is either similar to or different from their own and is either observable or obscured; and (c) have an opportunity to respond again to the scenario. A preregistered study (n = 1,000) finds support for our theory. A supplemental study (n = 200) suggests that the social influence of latent cognitive differences operates through the mechanism of argument novelty. We discuss implications of these findings for research on social influence, collective intelligence, and cognitive diversity in groups.

“Exposure to the Views of Opposing Others with Latent Cognitive Differences Results in Social Influence—But Only When Those Differences Remain Obscured“. Management Science. [Data and Code]

Abstract

When the social boundaries between groups are breached, the tendency for people to erect and maintain symbolic boundaries intensifies. Drawing on extant perspectives on boundary maintenance, we distinguish between two strategies that people pursue in maintaining symbolic boundaries: boundary retention—entrenching themselves in pre-existing symbolic distinctions—and boundary reformation—innovating new forms of symbolic distinction. Traditional approaches to measuring symbolic boundaries—interviews, participant-observation, and self-reports are ill-suited to detecting fine-grained variation in boundary maintenance. To overcome this limitation, we use the tools of computational linguistics and machine learning to develop a novel approach to measuring symbolic boundaries based on interactional language use between group members before and after they encounter one another. We construct measures of boundary retention and reformation using random forest classifiers that quantify group differences based on pre- and post-contact linguistic styles. We demonstrate this method’s utility by applying it to a corpus of email communications from a mid-sized financial services firm that acquired and integrated two smaller firms. We find that: (a) the persistence of symbolic boundaries can be detected for up to 18 months after a merger; (b) acquired employees exhibit more boundary reformation and less boundary retention than their counterparts from the acquiring firm; and (c) individuals engage in more boundary retention, but not reformation, when their local work environment is more densely populated by ingroup members. We discuss implications of these findings for the study of culture in a wide range of intergroup contexts and for computational approaches to measuring culture.

“A Language-Based Method for Assessing Symbolic Boundary Maintenance between Social Groups.” Sociological Methods & Research 51(4): 1681-1720.

Abstract

How does cognitive diversity in a group affect its performance? Prior research suggests that group cognitive diversity poses a performance tradeoff: Diverse groups excel at creativity and innovation, but struggle to take coordinated action. Building on the insight that group cognition is not static, but is instead dynamically and interactively produced, we introduce the construct of discursive diversity, a manifestation of group cognitive diversity, which reflects the degree to which the meanings conveyed by group members in a given set of interactions diverge from one another. We propose that high-performing teams are ones that have a collective capacity to modulate shared cognition to match changing task requirements: They exhibit higher discursive diversity when engaged in ideational tasks and lower discursive diversity when performing coordination tasks. We further argue that teams exhibiting congruent modulation—that is, those with low group-level variance in members’ within-person semantic shifts to changing task requirements—are more likely to experience success than teams characterized by incongruent modulation. Using the tools of computational linguistics to derive a measure of discursive diversity and drawing on a novel longitudinal data set of intragroup electronic communications and performance outcomes for 117 remote software development teams on an online platform (www.gigster.com), we find support for our theory. Our findings suggest that the performance tradeoff of group cognitive diversity is not inescapable: Groups can navigate it by aligning their levels of discursive diversity to match their task requirements and by having members stay aligned with one another as they make these adjustments.

“Aligning Differences: Discursive Diversity and Team Performance.” Management Science 68(11): 8340-8448. [Replication Files]

Abstract

Brief interventions that strengthen an individual’s sense of social belonging have been shown to improve outcomes for members of underrepresented, marginalized groups in educational settings. This paper reports insights based on an attempt to apply this type of intervention in the technology sector. Adapting a social-belonging intervention from educational psychology, we implemented a quasi-random field experiment, spanning 12 months, with 506 newly hired engineers (24% of the sample was female) in the R&D function of a West Coast technology firm. We did not find a statistically significant effect of the treatment on a core attainment outcome—bonus relative to base salary—that exhibited a significant gender gap, with women receiving proportionally lower bonuses than men. We did not find anticipated gender gaps in promotion rates or social network centrality, and we also did not find a statistically significant effect of the treatment of women on these outcomes. Drawing on meaningful differences between educational versus workplace settings, we identify four theoretical moderators that might influence the efficacy of social-belonging interventions adapted from educational settings into the workplace. Finally, based on the limitations of our study design, we provide four recommendations that future researchers might adopt.

“A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention in the Workplace: Evidence from a Field Experiment.” Academy of Management Discoveries 7(1): 85-103.

Abstract

As conveners that bring various stakeholders into the same physical space, firms can powerfully influence the course of pandemics such as coronavirus disease 2019. Even when operating under government orders and health guidelines, firms have considerable discretion to keep their establishments open or closed during a pandemic. We examine the role of social learning in the exercise of this discretion at the establishment level. In particular, we evaluate how the closure decisions of chain establishments, which are associated with national brands, affect those of proximate, same-industry community establishments, which are independently owned or managed. We conduct these analyses using cell phone location tracking data on daily visits to 230,403 U.S.-based community establishments that are colocated with chain establishments affiliated with 319 national brands. We disentangle the effects of social learning from confounding factors by using an instrumental variables strategy that relies on local variation in community establishments’ exposure to closure decisions made by brands at the national level. Our results suggest that closing decisions of community establishments are affected by the decisions made by chain establishments; a community establishment is 3.5% more likely to be open on a given day if the proportion of nearby open chain establishments increases by one standard deviation.

“Social Learning in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Community Establishments’ Closure Decisions Follow Those of Nearby Chain Establishments.” Management Science 67(7): 4446-4454. [Code]

Abstract

How does cultural heterogeneity in an organization relate to its underlying capacity for execution and innovation? Cultural diversity is commonly thought to present a tradeoff between task coordination and creative problem solving, with diversity arising primarily through cultural differences between individuals. In contrast, we propose that diversity can also exist within persons when individuals hold multiple cultural beliefs about the organization. We refer to these different forms as interpersonal and intrapersonal cultural heterogeneity. We argue that the former tends to undermine coordination and portends worsening firm profitability, while the latter facilitates creativity and supports greater patenting success and more positive market valuations. To evaluate these propositions, we use computational linguistics to identify cultural content in employee reviews of nearly 500 publicly traded firms on a leading company review website and then develop novel, time-varying measures of cultural heterogeneity. Our empirical results lend support for our two core propositions, suggesting the need to rethink the performance tradeoffs of cultural heterogeneity: it may be possible to reap the creativity benefits of higher intrapersonal heterogeneity and, at the same time, the efficiency benefits of lower interpersonal heterogeneity.

“Duality in Diversity: How Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Cultural Heterogeneity Relate to Firm Performance.” Administrative Science Quarterly 65(2): 359-394.

Abstract

This meta-analysis evaluated theoretical predictions from balanced identity theory (BIT) and evaluated the validity of zero points of IAT and self-report measures used to test these predictions.Twenty-one researchers contributed individual-subject data from 36 experiments (total N = 12,773) that used both explicit and implicit measures of the social–cognitive constructs. The meta-analysis confirmed predictions of BIT’s balance–congruity principle and simultaneously validated interpretation of the IAT’s zero point as indicating absence of preference between two attitude objects. Statistical power afforded by the sample size enabled the first confirmations of balance–congruity predictions with self-report measures. Beyond these empirical results, the meta-analysis introduced a within-study statistical test of the balance–congruity principle, finding that it had greater efficiency than the previous best method. The meta-analysis’s full data set has been publicly archived to enable further studies of interrelations among attitudes, stereotypes, and identities.

“Meta-Analytic Use of Balanced Identity Theory to Validate the Implicit Association Test.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. [Supplement]

Abstract

Organizations have idiosyncratic norms and practices that govern the exercise of power. Newcomers learn these unwritten rules through organizational socialization. In organizations with dominant and subordinate groups, structural power can shift between groups as the resources they control ebb and flow. We examine how entering the organization in a dominant group affects (1) the ability to exert influence following subsequent structural shifts in power and (2) the rate at which people learn to wield influence. On one hand, entering in a dominant group may boost self-efficacy and catalyze social learning about effective influence tactics. On the other hand, entering in a dominant group may make people susceptible to the adverse psychological consequences of experiencing power, which inhibit social learning. We examine these dynamics in the context of the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2005. We find partial support for both accounts: (1) senators who entered in the political majority were less effective than their counterparts who entered in the minority at converting subsequent structural shifts of power into influence; however, (2) majority entrants learned how to wield influence following such shifts at a faster rate than did minority entrants. We discuss implications for research on power, learning, and socialization.

“Efficacy or Rigidity? Power, Influence, and Social Learning in the U.S. Senate, 1973-2005.” Academy of Management Discoveries 5(3): 251-265.

Abstract

How do people adapt to organizational culture, and what are the consequences for their outcomes in the organization? These fundamental questions about culture have previously been examined using self-report measures, which are subject to reporting bias, rely on coarse cultural categories defined by researchers, and provide only static snapshots of cultural fit. By contrast, we develop an interactional language use model that overcomes these limitations and opens new avenues for theoretical development about the dynamics of organizational culture. We trace the enculturation trajectories of employees in a midsized technology firm based on analyses of 10.24 million internal emails. Our language-based model of changing cultural fit (1) predicts individual attainment; (2) reveals distinct patterns of adaptation for employees who exit voluntarily, exit involuntarily, and remain employed; (3) demonstrates that rapid early cultural adaptation reduces the risk of involuntary, but not voluntary, exit; and (4) finds that a decline in cultural fit for individuals who had successfully enculturated portends voluntary departure.

“Enculturation Trajectories: Language, Cultural Adaptation, and Individual Outcomes in Organizations.” Management Science 64(3): 1348-1364.

Abstract

Cultural fit is widely believed to affect the success of individuals and the groups to which they belong. Yet it remains an elusive, poorly measured construct. Recent research draws on computational linguistics to measure cultural fit but overlooks asymmetries in cultural adaptation. By contrast, we develop a directed, dynamic measure of cultural fit based on linguistic alignment, which estimates the influence of one person’s word use on another’s and distinguishes between two enculturation mechanisms: internalization and self-regulation. We use this measure to trace employees’ enculturation trajectories over a large, multi-year corpus of corporate emails and find that patterns of alignment in the first six months of employment are predictive of individuals downstream outcomes, especially involuntary exit. Further predictive analyses suggest referential alignment plays an overlooked role in linguistic alignment.

“Alignment at Work: Using Language to Distinguish the Internalization and Self-Regulation Components of Cultural Fit in Organizations.” In Proceedings of the 55th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL).

Abstract

This paper extends niche theory to develop an intraorganizational conceptualization of the niche that is grounded in the activities of organizational members. We construe niches as positions in a mapping of individuals to formal and informal activities within organizations. We posit that positional characteristics in this activity-based system are critical determinants of members’ access to information and relationships—two of the vital resources for advancement in organizations. Because activities are difficult to observe, we propose a novel empirical strategy to depict niches: we exploit a census of memberships in electronic mailing lists. We assess three niche dimensions—competitive crowding, status, and diversity—and show that these attributes affect the allocation of rewards to employees. Propositions are tested in two empirical settings: an information services firm and the R&D division of a biopharmaceutical company. Results indicate that people in competitively crowded niches had lower levels of attainment, whereas those in high status and diverse niches enjoyed higher attainment levels. We conclude with a discussion of email distribution lists as a tool for organizational research.

“An Intra-Organizational Ecology of Individual Attainment.” Organization Science 27(1): 90-105.

Abstract

A recurring theme in sociological research is the tradeoff between fitting in and standing out. Prior work examining this tension tends to take either a structural or a cultural perspective. We fuse these two traditions to develop a theory of how structural and cultural embeddedness jointly relate to individual attainment within organizations. Given that organizational culture is hard to observe, we develop a novel approach to assessing individuals’ cultural fit with their colleagues based on the language expressed in internal e-mail communications. Drawing on a unique dataset that includes a corpus of 10.24 million e-mail messages exchanged over five years among 601 employees in a high-technology firm, we find that network constraint impedes, whereas cultural fit promotes, individual attainment. More importantly, we find evidence of a tradeoff between the two forms of embeddedness: cultural fit benefits individuals with low network constraint (i.e., brokers), whereas network constraint promotes attainment for people with low cultural fit.

“Fitting In or Standing Out? The Tradeoffs of Structural and Cultural Embeddedness.” American Sociological Review 81(6): 1190-1222.

Abstract

What qualities make a political leader more influential or less influential? Philosophers, political scientists, and psychologists have puzzled over this question, positing two opposing routes to political power—one driven by human virtues, such as courage and wisdom, and the other driven by vices, such as Machiavellianism and psychopathy. By coding nonverbal behaviors displayed in political speeches, we assessed the virtues and vices of 151 U.S. senators. We found that virtuous senators became more influential after they assumed leadership roles, whereas senators who displayed behaviors consistent with vices—particularly psychopathy—became no more influential or even less influential after they assumed leadership roles. Our results inform a long-standing debate about the role of morality and ethics in leadership and have important implications for electing effective government officials. Citizens would be wise to consider a candidate’s virtue in casting their votes, which might increase the likelihood that elected officials will have genuine concern for their constituents and simultaneously promote cooperation and progress in government.

“Virtues, Vices, and Political Influence in the U.S. Senate.” Psychological Science 27(1): 85-93. [Data]

Abstract

Do female managers act in ways that narrow or instead act in ways that preserve or even widen the gender wage gap? Although conceptual arguments exist on both sides of this debate, the empirical evidence to date has favored the former view. Yet this evidence comes primarily from cross-establishment surveys, which do not provide visibility into individual managers’ choices. Using longitudinal personnel records from an information services firm in which managers had considerable discretion over employee salaries, we estimate multilevel models that indicate no support for the proposition that female managers reduce the gender wage gap among their subordinates. Consistent with the theory of value threat, we instead find conditional support for the cogs-in-the-machine perspective: in the subsample of high-performing supervisors and low-performing employees, women who switched from a male to a female supervisor had a lower salary in the following year than men who made the same switch.

“Agents of Change or Cogs in the Machine? Re-examining the Influence of Female Managers on the Gender Wage Gap.” American Journal of Sociology 120(6): 1778-1808.

Abstract

Contrary to the assumption of relational inertia that is prevalent in much of the research on organizational change, I propose that intraorganizational networks are instead subject to transitory shifts when organizational change produces high levels of ambiguity for employees. I develop a theoretical account of how networks defined by formal, semiformal, and informal organizational structure change in response to heightened ambiguity. I argue that, when ambiguity increases, people will tend to (1) decrease communication with formal network ties that do not have a significant semiformal component, (2) increase communication with semiformal network ties that do not have a significant formal component, and (3) increase communication with informal network ties. Empirical support for these propositions comes from unique data—including 40 weeks of archived email metadata, the full roster of email distribution lists, personnel records, and qualitative interviews—that span the period before, during, and after an ambiguity-producing restructuring at a large information services firm. These findings contribute to research on organizational structure, organizational change, and social capital activation and also have implications for management practice.

“Intraorganizational Network Dynamics in Times of Ambiguity.” Organization Science 26(5): 1365-1380.

Abstract

This article assesses the effects of formal mentoring on workplace networks. It also provides conceptual clarity and empirical evidence on expected gender differences in the effects of such programs. Qualitative interviews with 40 past participants in a formal mentoring program at a software laboratory in Beijing, China, provide insight into the core mechanisms by which such programs produce network change: access to organizational elites, participation in semiformal foci, enhanced social skills, and legitimacy-enhancing signals. These mechanisms are theorized to lead to an expansion in proteges’ networks, relative to those of non-participants in formal mentoring. Legitimacy-enhancing signals are theorized to enable female proteges to derive greater network benefit from formal mentoring than their male counterparts. Empirical support for these propositions comes from a longitudinal quasi-experiment involving 75 employees who experienced the treatment of formal mentoring and 64 employees in a matched control group. A second empirical strategy, which exploits exogenous variation in the timing of treatment and enables a comparison of the post-program networks of one treated group to the pre-program networks of another treated group, provides corroborating support. These findings contribute to research on the efficacy of formal mentoring, gender and workplace networks, and the cumulative advantage or disadvantage that can arise from network change.

“Network Intervention: A Field Experiment to Assess the Effects of Formal Mentoring on Workplace Networks.” Social Forces 94(1): 427-452.

Abstract

This article reconciles two seemingly incompatible expectations about interpersonal interaction and social influence. One theoretical perspective predicts that an increase in interaction between two actors will promote subsequent convergence in their attitudes and behaviors, whereas another view anticipates divergence. We examine the role of political identity in moderating the effects of interaction on influence. Our investigation takes place in the U.S. Senate—a setting in which actors forge political identities for public consumption based on the external constraints, normative obligations, and reputational concerns they face. We argue that interaction between senators who share the same political identity will promote convergence in their voting behavior, whereas interaction between actors with opposing political identities will lead to divergence. Moreover, we theorize that the consequences of political identity for interpersonal influence depend on the local interaction context. Political identity’s effects on influence will be greater in more divided Senate committees than in less divided ones. We find support for these hypotheses in analyses of data, spanning over three decades, on voting behavior, interaction, and political identity in the Senate. These findings contribute to research on social influence; elite integration and political polarization; and identity theory.

“Pulling Closer and Moving Apart: Interaction, Identity, and Influence in the U.S. Senate, 1973-2009.” American Sociological Review 80(1): 192-217. [Data]

Abstract

This article examines how uncertain situations of threat or opportunity influence people’s choices to interact with their colleagues in an organization. The threat/opportunity lens encompasses two conceptually distinct dimensions, gain/loss and control/limited control, which are hypothesized to produce different patterns of network interaction. Two experimental studies—one involving 158 leaders in a health-care organization and the other involving 129 employees in a range of smaller establishments—provided support for the proposed conceptualization. The studies found that (1) people chose to interact with more network contacts in situations of loss than in situations of gain, (2) those with an internal locus of control chose to interact with more network contacts in situations of limited control than in situations of control, whereas those with an external locus of control exhibited the opposite response, and (3) the tendency to interact with more network contacts in loss rather than gain was greater for low-ranking actors relative to high-ranking ones. These findings contribute to our understanding of the interplay between individual cognition and organizational social networks.

“Threat, Opportunity, and Network Interaction in Organizations.” Social Psychology Quarterly 78(3): 246-262. [Data]

Abstract

This article examines the interplay of culture, cognition, and social networks in organizations with norms that emphasize cross-boundary collaboration. In such settings, social desirability concerns can induce a disparity between how people view themselves in conscious (i.e., deliberative) versus less conscious (i.e., automatic) cognition. These differences have implications for the resulting pattern of intra-organizational collaborative ties. Based on a laboratory study and field data from a biotechnology firm, we find that (1) people consciously report more positive views of themselves as collaborative actors than they appear to hold in less conscious cognition; (2) less conscious collaborative–independent self-views are associated with the choice to enlist organizationally distant colleagues in collaboration; and (3) these self-views are also associated with a person’s likelihood of being successfully enlisted by organizationally distant colleagues (i.e., of supporting these colleagues in collaboration). By contrast, consciously reported collaborative–independent self-views are not associated with these choices. This study contributes to our understanding of how culture is internalized in individual cognition and how self-related cognition is linked to social structure through collaboration. It also demonstrates the limits of self-reports in settings with strong normative pressures and represents a novel integration of methods from cognitive psychology and network analysis.

“Culture, Cognition, and Collaborative Networks in Organizations.” American Sociological Review 76(2): 207-233.

Abstract

In this brief essay, we provide additional context for this special issue on culture and strategy and comment on the organizaing framework proposed by Bob Gibbons, Jordan Siegel, and Roberto Weber in their introductory essay. The origins of this special issue trace back to the first annual Berkeley Culture Conference, which took place in January 2019 as part of the broader Berkeley Haas Culture Initiative (BCI) that the two of us codirect. One of BCI’s central aims is to address the fragmentation that currently plagues organizational culture research by bringing together scholars across the domains of strategy, economics, psychology, sociology, and organizational behavior to develop a more coherent and unified research agenda. In addition to our ongoing annual conference, which we encourage strategy scholars to submit papers to and attend, we reasoned that a special issue of a forward-looking journal such as Strategy Science might also help advance our core research objective.

“A Psychologist and Sociologist Join Strategists for Breakfast: Building a Framework to Understand Culture and its Relationship to Strategy.” Strategy Science (introductory essay for special issue on organizational culture and strategy that I co-guest edited).

Abstract

Social network research emphasizes the advantages that actors can derive and the risks they incur when engaging in various forms of structural bridging. A separate tradition in cultural sociology examines the causes and consequences of cultural bridging. Building on work that brings structural and cultural perspectives into dialogue with one another, this chapter proposes a conceptual fusion of these two literatures that offers fresh insight about the tradeoffs and contingencies associated with each form of bridging. In particular, it develops a novel conceptualization of the social contexts in which bridging occurs. The proposed framework suggests four ideal types of contexts in which actors can be ensconcedor act as bridges and points to promising avenues for future research that aims to integrate structural and cultural perspectives to uncover how social relations can produce variation in individual attainment and well-being.

“Bridging Perspectives on Bridging: A Framework of Social Contexts that Integrates Structural and Cultural Bridging.” Social Networks at Work, edited by D. J. Brass and S.P. Borgatti, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Abstract

How people fit into social groups is a core topic of investigation across multiple sociological subfields, including education, immigration, and organizations. In this chapter, we synthesize findings from these literatures to develop an overarching framework for conceptualizing and measuring the level of cultural fit and the dynamics of enculturation between individuals and social groups. We distinguish between the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of fitting in, which previous work has tended to either examine in isolation or to conflate. Reviewing the literature through this lens enables us to identify the strengths and limitations of unitary—that is, primarily cognitive or primarily behavioral—approaches to studying cultural fit. In contrast, we develop a theoretical framework that integrates the two perspectives and highlights the value of considering their interplay over time. We then identify promising theoretical pathways that can link the two dimensions of cultural fit. We conclude by discussing the implications of pursuing these conceptual routes for research methods and provide some illustrative examples of such work.

“What is Cultural Fit? From Cognition to Behavior (and Back).” Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Sociology, edited by W. Brekhus and G. Ignatow: Oxford University Press.

Abstract

Structural power is often assumed to lead to influence. Yet people vary in their ability to convert power into influence, and the experience of power can itself sow the seeds for the loss of influence. We bring a temporal, historical perspective to account for these disparities and apparent contradictions. We theorize that the gain or loss of power produces corresponding shifts in influence; however, these effects are contingent upon people’s experiences with power and conflict at the time of organizational entry. Individuals who enter an organization wielding considerable structural power can acquire enduring cognitive rigidities–a stamp of power–that subsequently make them less influential, while those who initially experience conflict can derive lasting learning benefits–a stamp of conflict–that later make them more influential. We evaluate and find support for these propositions in analyses of the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009: (1) senators became more influential when their party moved into the majority and when they became committee chairs; (2) entering the Senate as a member of the majority party dampened senators’ subsequent ability to exert influence; and (3) initial assignment to politically divided committees enhanced senators’ later influence. We discuss implications for research on power, conflict, and imprinting.

“Stamps of Power and Conflict: Imprinting and Influence in the U.S. Senate, 1973-2009.” In John Humphries (Ed.), Proceedings of the Seventy-fifth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Online ISSN: 2151-6561.

Abstract

We propose a framework of constrained agency grounded in the actors’ resources and motivations within their structurally constrained context. Structural positions influence the resources available to actors and color the motivations that shape their actions. Resources equip actors to exert agency, while motivations propel them to do so. We derive a typology of network actions and illustrate how the form of constrained agency through which a particular network action is taken can affect actors’ ensuing structural positions and the nature of the constraints they subsequently face. Our conceptualization of constrained agency identifies new sources of endogenous change in network structure.

“Bringing Agency Back into Network Research: Constrained Agency and Network Action.” Pp. 73-93 in Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 40, edited by D. J. Brass, G. Labianca, A. Mehra, D. S. Halgin, and S. P. Borgatti: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd..

Abstract

Analysts and commentators periodically raise the prospect that large-scale social changes might substantially alter patterns of interpersonal relations, often for the worse. Among putative sources of such disruptions to the social fabric are industrialization, urbanization and the development and expansion of mass media. Wirth (1938), for example, wrote about consequences of a rapid rural-urban transition for modes of life, including declines in kinship bonds, neighborliness, and personal acquaintanceship (p.11), and substitution of secondary for primary social ties. Sociological analyses suggested that “mass society” entails a general reduction in the number of communal relationships, together with diminished functionality for those that remain; such atomization, it was feared, would render large numbers of people open to manipulation by elites and susceptible to mass appeals (Kornhauser, 1968). Wellman (1979) terms these “community lost” perspectives.

“Trends in Informal Social Participation, 1974-2008.” Pp. 240-266 in Social Trends in American Life: Findings from the General Social Survey since 1972, edited by P. V. Marsden. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Abstract

Amir Goldberg and Sameer B. Srivastava provide three concrete illustrations of how managers can use AI to better understand and more effectively manage organizational culture.

“How Can AI Enrich Our Understanding of Organizational Culture?” Management and Business Review 4(2): 32-37.

Abstract

As COVID-19 begins to recede with the growing availability of the life-saving vaccines, astute organizational leaders are reflecting on how their organizations have changed in response to the uncertainty and intense strain of the pandemic and are considering what further adaptations might be necessary. Much attention has focused on visible forms of change such as demand swings that have, in some cases, required furloughs and layoffs and, in others, frantic hiring sprees. In fact, many organizations have shifted when and where people work and are preparing for the transition back to in-person or hybrid work. Yet organizations have also undergone less visible and more subtle changes that are equally critical to surface so that leaders can make informed strategic decisions and determine how to support new strategic choices with potential adjustments to their organizational structure and culture.

“How Have Organizational Cultures Shifted During the COVID-19 Pandemic…And How Might They Need to Change Back?” California Management Review Insights.

Abstract

A business’s culture can catalyze or undermine success. Yet the tools available for measuring it—namely, employee surveys and questionnaires—have significant shortcomings. Employee self-reports are often unreliable. The values and beliefs that people say are important to them, for example, are often not reflected in how they actually behave. Moreover, surveys provide static, or at best episodic, snapshots of organizations that are constantly evolving. And they’re limited by researchers’ tendency to assume that distinctive and idiosyncratic cultures can be neatly categorized into a few common types.

“The New Analytics of Culture.” Harvard Business Review 98(1): 76-83.

Abstract

Culture is assumed to play a pivotal role in organizational success and failure. In contrast to prevailing top-down perspectives, this article proposes an approach to studying culture that accounts for myriad organizational subcultures, how individuals fit into those subcultures, and the causes and consequences of shifts in culture and cultural fit. The language through which people communicate with colleagues offers a powerful lens for studying cultural dynamics and its relationship to individual, group, and organizational success. This article describes a burgeoning stream of research that uses language as a window into culture and discusses its implications for managerial practice.

“Language as a Window into Culture.” California Management Review 60(1): 56-69.

Abstract

Social belonging is a fundamental human need, which people experience to varying degrees in the workplace. Interventions to boost belonging have typically focused on changing individuals’ mindsets. We instead develop a structural intervention that seeks to foster belonging by exposing people to unfamiliar colleagues—ones they are not in regular contact with. We consider two forms of such exposure: convergent, to colleagues from the same network community as the focal actor; and divergent, to colleagues from different network communities. Participants in a non-profit organization (N=213) engaged in a facilitated professional development program with unfamiliar colleagues and were randomly assigned to either convergent or divergent groups. Consistent with pre-registered expectations, convergent-condition participants reported more group solidarity and—three months post-intervention—more persistent ties to fellow group members and greater social belonging. Using computational linguistics and machine learning techniques to impute survey responses, we further show that convergent-condition participants experienced greater belonging than did a synthetic control group. Yet, pointing to the tradeoffs of the two forms of exposure, divergentexposure participants experienced steeper declines in network constraint and greater increases in betweenness and closeness centrality, independent of fellow-group-member ties. We discuss implications for research on social networks, workplace belonging, and organizational interventions.

“Convergence Versus Divergence: How Exposure to Unfamiliar Colleagues Within and Across Network Communities Affects Social Belonging and Network Change.”

Abstract

Social groups are arenas for both cohesion and conflict. Whereas prevailing theories focus on how these processes unfold at the boundaries between groups, the authors focus on the tensions that emerge within groups and that give rise to directed uncivil discourse. They develop a novel theoretical account of its network-structural antecedents. In polarized online groups, they hypothesize that the greater the structural similarity between two individuals, the less likely they will be to direct uncivil language toward one another. They further argue that this relationship will be moderated by the degree of group polarization. Using a node embedding algorithm (i.e., node2vec) to derive an omnibus measure of interpersonal structural similarity, they find support for the theory using a dataset that encompasses more than 25 million comments made by over 1.7 million users in six polarized communities on Reddit. They discuss implications for research on intergroup animosity, group polarization, the measurement of structural similarity, and the interplay of structure and culture.

“From Conflict to Cohesion: Structural Similarity Dampens Uncivil Discourse in Polarized Social Groups.” Revise and Resubmit: American Journal of Sociology.

Abstract

From the interview room to the press room, much of organizational life unfolds in evaluative contexts wherein evaluatees present information that positions themselves in a favorable light, while evaluators ask penetrating questions to evaluate these claims. Although some questions are readily addressed, others are surprising in ways that can unsettle even a carefully crafted presentation. We propose that questions can be surprising in two analytically distinct ways: when they are off-topic and when they are unexpected. We argue that questions that are on-topic but unexpected are most likely to be disruptive. We refer to such questions as curveballs and examine the situations under which they arise. Whereas prior work on interpersonal evaluation focuses on actor- and interaction-level explanations, we consider the role of a structural property: the information environment. We theorize that evaluators are more likely to pose curveball questions when there is a dearth, rather than abundance, of public information about the evaluatee. To evaluate these ideas, we develop a novel measure of curveball questions using natural language processing techniques. Using a corpus of quarterly earnings calls and data on newspaper closures, which induce exogenous variation in a locally headquartered firm’s information environment, we find support for our theory.

“Throwing Curveballs: Unpacking Surprising Questions in Evaluative Settings and Probing their Origins.” Revise and Resubmit: Strategic Management Journal.

Abstract

What factors shape the evolution of formal structure in organizations? Applying a “microstructural” lens to this question, we examine how one of the most emergent and fluid properties of an organization’s internal workings—the culture and various sub- cultures that develop through the interactions of its members—shapes the evolution of local structure in the form of a supervisory unit. Prior work points to compet- ing expectations about the relationship between culture and formal structure: One perspective argues that they are substitutes, while another implies that they function more as complements. We propose that this tension can be resolved by considering the role of coordinative complexity. Consistent with prevailing intuitions, we propose that, when coordinative complexity is low, culture and structure will tend to operate as substitutes. As coordinative complexity increases, however, we argue that they function more as complements. As a result, coordinative complexity affects whether culturally aligned colleagues become connected to, or disconnected from, each other through a common reporting relationship. Using archival data from a design firm, we find support for our theory and show that it is especially predictive when two colleagues are highly visible to their senior managers.

“Where are Managers Needed? How Culture and Coordinative Complexity Predict the Evolution of Reporting Relationships in Organizations.”