Browsing by Subject "Advice ties"

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Getting connected : minority group membership and implicit theories of portfolios of social capital
(2021-08-12) Jo, Jae Kwon; Harrison, David A. (Professor in management); Burris, Ethan; Gray, Steven; Rosette, Ashleigh
Social network theory posits that informal ties provide access to critical resources such as task knowledge, social support, or unique information that are essential for job performance and career success. Central positions in the social network or positions that bridge disconnected circles of individuals have been linked to important individual-level outcomes. Despite the benefits that advantageous positions in social networks have to offer, some individuals experience systematically greater difficulty in obtaining them. Prior investigations have found that individuals in minority groups are often pushed to the periphery of their social networks. Minority group members face unique constraints at the workplace due to the lack of similar others in the social environment. Thus, individuals in minority groups might have different ideas about how to develop and manage their social networks than their majority group counterparts. Overall, this dissertation attempts to understand the implicit theories behind how individuals form their informal ties at the workplace. I identify several parameters of individuals’ implicit theories of social networks, and then compare how these parameters differ across individuals from different identity groups. This dissertation provides an initial psychological account for how these implicit theories lead to an increased or decreased likelihood of tie formation. Overall, I find that minority group members are more likely to hold implicit theory sub-dimensions that center around trust and acceptance. These sub-dimensions act as selectivity filters that lead minority group members to reach out to fewer individuals because such individuals will only look to reach out to those who they believe will be accepting of them. Following a sample of MBA students (N = 195), I find initial support that minority group members have a different mental approach in constructing their overall portfolios of social capital.