The Microfoundations of Organizational Social Networks A Review and an Agenda for Future Research

This paper focuses on an emergent debate about the microfoundations of organizational social networks. We consider three theoretical positions: an individual agency perspective suggesting that people, through their individual characteristics and cognitions, shape networks; a network patterning persp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of management Vol. 41; no. 5; pp. 1361 - 1387
Main Authors: Tasselli, Stefano, Kilduff, Martin, Menges, Jochen I.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2015
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects:
Agency
Attitudes
Contextual analysis
Employee attitude
Human agency
Organizational behavior
Organizational research
Personality
Professional relationships
Psychology
Social behaviour
Social networks
Studies
structuration
structural patterning
personality
agency
network cognition
coevolution
self-monitoring
individual differences
ISSN:0149-2063, 1557-1211
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This paper focuses on an emergent debate about the microfoundations of organizational social networks. We consider three theoretical positions: an individual agency perspective suggesting that people, through their individual characteristics and cognitions, shape networks; a network patterning perspective suggesting that networks, through their structural configuration, form people; and a coevolution perspective suggesting that people, in their idiosyncrasies, and networks, in their differentiated structures, coevolve. We conclude that individual attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes cannot be fully understood without considering the structuring of organizational contexts in which people are embedded, and that social network structuring and change in organizations cannot be fully understood without considering the psychology of purposive individuals. To guide future research, we identify key questions from each of the three theoretical perspectives and, particularly, encourage more research on how individual actions and network structure coevolve in a dynamic process of reciprocal influence.
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ISSN:0149-2063
1557-1211
DOI:10.1177/0149206315573996