Choosing Work Group Members: Balancing Similarity, Competence, and Familiarity

doi:10.1006/obhd.1999.2875

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Volume 81, Issue 2, March 2000, Pages 226-251

https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1999.2875 Get rights and content

Abstract

This study explores one of the contributors to group composition—the basis on which people choose others with whom they want to work. We use a combined model to explore individual attributes, relational attributes, and previous structural ties as determinants of work partner choice. Four years of data from participants in 33 small project groups were collected, some of which reflects individual participant characteristics and some of which is social network data measuring the previous relationship between two participants. Our results suggest that when selecting future group members people are biased toward others of the same race, others who have a reputation for being competent and hard working, and others with whom they have developed strong working relationships in the past. These results suggest that people strive for predictability when choosing future work group members.

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^☆: This work was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation, IRI-9216760.

^f2: Address correspondence and reprint requests to Pamela J. Hinds, Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4024. E-mail: [email protected]

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Regular ArticleChoosing Work Group Members: Balancing Similarity, Competence, and Familiarity☆

Abstract

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Social Networks

Journal of Mathematical Psychology

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Social Networks

Social Networks

Organizational Behavior and Human Performance

The analysis of social interaction data: A nonparametric technique

Sociological Methods and Research

Models for network evolution

Journal of Mathematical Sociology

Theoretical and metatheoretical themes in expectation states theory

Effects of performance evaluations on group integration and motivation

Human Relations

Exchange and power in social life

Men's and women's networks: A study of interaction patterns and influence in an organization

Academy of Management Journal

Centrality and power in organizations

Interpersonal attraction as a function of affiliation need and attitude similarity

Human Relations

Group stability: A socio-cognitive approach

A theory of group stability

American Sociological Review

On the evolution of social and organizational networks

Research in the Sociology of Organizations

Basking in reflected glory: Three (football) field studies

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Modern organizations

Group attraction and membership

The formation of social groups under conditions of success and failure

Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology

Familiarity and group productivity

Journal of Applied Psychology

Statistical methods for meta-analysis

The multi-level theory of team decision making: Decision performance in teams incorporating distributed expertise

Journal of Applied Psychology

Assignment methods in combinatorial data analysis

Quadratic assignment as a general data analysis strategy

British Journal of Mathematical Psychology

Homophily and differential returns: Sex differences in network structure and access in an advertising firm

Administrative Science Quarterly

Team composition in organizational settings: Issues in managing an increasingly diverse work force

Groupthink: Psychological studies of policy decisions and fiascoes

The theory and practice of econometrics

Men and women of the corporation

Communication at a distance: The effect of print on socio-cultural organization and change

Do we know how much people like one another?

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Bringing the individual back in: A structural analysis of the internal market for reputation in organizations

Academy of Management Journal

QAP partialling as a test of spuriousness

Social Networks

Regular Article
Choosing Work Group Members: Balancing Similarity, Competence, and Familiarity☆