Network analysis

Team effort and performance are arguably the most important foci of organizational research. Social and organizational psychologists have devoted an immense amount of empirical attention to understanding both constructs, but have largely focused on identifying explanatory variables that reside within the group. Despite repeated calls for more research on the role that extra-team variables play in regulating team effort and performance, researchers have continued to embrace explanatory models with only intra-team parameters. The current research explains individual effort within groups and subsequent group performance as an interactive function of not only intra-team variables, but also properties of the social networks in which teams are embedded. To identify network properties germane to team functioning, a multi-year study isolated social networking patterns that later predicted the effort individuals put forth on an extensive team task. Specifically, structural network patterns--the extent to which teammates shared overlapping extra-team ties--were found to positively influence effort on the team task. In addition, intra-team network ties were found to positively influence effort and, in turn, the strength of these intra-team ties positively influenced performance. These findings are discussed with respect to academic and managerial implications.