Change is hard, especially in a large organization. Yet some leaders succeed--often spectacularly... more Change is hard, especially in a large organization. Yet some leaders succeed--often spectacularly--at transforming their workplaces. what makes them able to exert this sort of influence when the vast majority can't? The authors tracked 68 change initiatives in the UK's National Health Service, an organization whose size, complexity, and tradition can make reform difficult. They discovered several predictors of change agents' success--all of which emphasize the importance of networks of personal relationships: Change agents who were central in the organization's informal network had a clear advantage, regardless of their position in the formal hierarchy. People who bridged disconnected groups or individuals were more effective at implementing dramatic reforms. The resisters in their networks did not necessarily know one another and so were unlikely to form a coalition. Change agents with cohesive networks, in which all individuals were connected, were better at instit...
... Con el tiempo, episodios como éste disminuyeron la hostilidad y, al final de la experiencia, ... more ... Con el tiempo, episodios como éste disminuyeron la hostilidad y, al final de la experiencia, el número de niños que dijeron tener a su mejor amigo en el otro grupo se cuadruplicó. ... Competentes insoportables, tontos adorables y la formación de redes sociales junio 2005 ...
ABSTRACT To create social ties to support their professional or personal goals, people actively e... more ABSTRACT To create social ties to support their professional or personal goals, people actively engage in instrumental networking. Drawing from moral psychology research, we posit that this intentional behavior has unintended consequences for an individual’s morality. Unlike personal networking in pursuit of emotional support or friendship, and unlike social ties that emerge spontaneously, instrumental networking in pursuit of professional goals can impinge on an individual’s moral purity — a psychological state that results from viewing the self as clean from a moral standpoint — and make an individual feel dirty. We theorize that such feelings of dirtiness decrease the frequency of instrumental networking and, as a result, work performance. We also examine sources of variability in networking-induced feelings of dirtiness by proposing that the amount of power people have when they engage in instrumental networking influences how dirty this networking makes them feel. Three laboratory experiments and a survey study of lawyers in a large North American law firm provide support for our predictions. We call for a new direction in network research that investigates how network-related behaviors associated with building social capital influence individuals’ psychological experiences and work outcomes.
Change is hard, especially in a large organization. Yet some leaders succeed--often spectacularly... more Change is hard, especially in a large organization. Yet some leaders succeed--often spectacularly--at transforming their workplaces. what makes them able to exert this sort of influence when the vast majority can't? The authors tracked 68 change initiatives in the UK's National Health Service, an organization whose size, complexity, and tradition can make reform difficult. They discovered several predictors of change agents' success--all of which emphasize the importance of networks of personal relationships: Change agents who were central in the organization's informal network had a clear advantage, regardless of their position in the formal hierarchy. People who bridged disconnected groups or individuals were more effective at implementing dramatic reforms. The resisters in their networks did not necessarily know one another and so were unlikely to form a coalition. Change agents with cohesive networks, in which all individuals were connected, were better at instit...
... Con el tiempo, episodios como éste disminuyeron la hostilidad y, al final de la experiencia, ... more ... Con el tiempo, episodios como éste disminuyeron la hostilidad y, al final de la experiencia, el número de niños que dijeron tener a su mejor amigo en el otro grupo se cuadruplicó. ... Competentes insoportables, tontos adorables y la formación de redes sociales junio 2005 ...
ABSTRACT To create social ties to support their professional or personal goals, people actively e... more ABSTRACT To create social ties to support their professional or personal goals, people actively engage in instrumental networking. Drawing from moral psychology research, we posit that this intentional behavior has unintended consequences for an individual’s morality. Unlike personal networking in pursuit of emotional support or friendship, and unlike social ties that emerge spontaneously, instrumental networking in pursuit of professional goals can impinge on an individual’s moral purity — a psychological state that results from viewing the self as clean from a moral standpoint — and make an individual feel dirty. We theorize that such feelings of dirtiness decrease the frequency of instrumental networking and, as a result, work performance. We also examine sources of variability in networking-induced feelings of dirtiness by proposing that the amount of power people have when they engage in instrumental networking influences how dirty this networking makes them feel. Three laboratory experiments and a survey study of lawyers in a large North American law firm provide support for our predictions. We call for a new direction in network research that investigates how network-related behaviors associated with building social capital influence individuals’ psychological experiences and work outcomes.
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