Journal
HUMAN RELATIONS
Volume 72, Issue 6, Pages 1013-1038Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0018726718789479
Keywords
field experiment; formal and informal structures; interdependence; managerial intervention; network dynamics; network theory; randomization; social relations
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Funding
- ESSEC Business School
- Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School
- Mack Institute for Innovation Management at the Wharton School
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We offer the first field experiment showing how job assignments create social ties at work and influence their persistence. Pairs of managers were assigned at random to project teams. We show that once those pairs work together and become interdependent, they are more likely to create informal relationships (friendships and advice ties). Interdependence also increases the persistence of the informal ties that existed prior to team assignments; the magnitude of this effect decreases with tie strength. As organizations extend their use of teamwork, they also create and maintain social networks across functional and geographic boundaries. Thus, transitory project teams forge an enduring organizational legacy.
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