The
Management Department
Department
Seminar Series
Stefano Tasselli
Rotterdam
School of Management
Tuesday,
May 22nd 2018
Room N231
at 10:00 am
(4.00
p.m
in
Singapore)
Theme: “IN GOOD
COMPANY”: AN ALTER-CENTRIC INTERPRETATION OF NETWORK CENTRALITY IN
ORGANIZATIONS.”
Abstract: “Tracking
social network dynamics among professionals in a hospital department, we investigate the role of alters’ motivation in
explaining change in ego’s network position over
time. Motivational orientations affect the
kind of co-workers with whom people preferentially
interact in the workplace, such that people high
in communal motives prefer to establish ties
with co-workers occupying central positions in
organizational social networks. This effect
driven by motivation results in a systematic
network centrality bias: the personal network
of central individuals (individuals with
many incoming ties from colleagues) contains more supportive and altruistic people than the personal
network of individuals who are less central
(individuals with fewer incoming ties). Our findings
contribute to a better understanding of
the alter-centric psychological foundations
of an individual’s network centrality and call for further empirical research on how alters’ motives
affect the development of an individual’s
social networks in organizations.”
