Senior Managers’ Network Tie Use: The Effect of Performance Below Aspiration and Elite Social Identity

Olga Zarzecka, Florence Villeseche

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    While the importance or even necessity to build and maintain resourceful social networks appears as a forthright fact, there is still a lack of certainty as to who benefits from the resources that can be accessed through senior managers’ networks, and under what conditions. In this paper, we contribute to answering this puzzle with a sample constituted of senior managers from Denmark and their network ties, and investigate both economic and sociological conditions of
    senior managers’ tie use. Our results show that the greater the distance between aspiration level and actual firm performance, the more likely it is that senior managers will use their network ties to access resources that benefit chiefly the individual rather than the organization. In addition, we demonstrate that this rapport is moderated by senior managers’ social identity as a member of the
    corporate elite, so that a strong identification to this social group actually plays out in the firm’s favor.
    Original languageEnglish
    Publication date2016
    Number of pages38
    Publication statusPublished - 2016
    EventThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2016: Making Organizations Meaningful - Anaheim, United States
    Duration: 5 Aug 20169 Aug 2016
    Conference number: 76
    http://aom.org/annualmeeting/

    Conference

    ConferenceThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2016
    Number76
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CityAnaheim
    Period05/08/201609/08/2016
    Internet address

    Keywords

    • Senior managers
    • Corporate elite
    • Network ties
    • Firm performance
    • Social identity
    • Tie content
    • Multiplex ties

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