How Do They Get There? An Examination of the Antecedents of Centrality in Team Networks

Abstract

Drawing on social exchange and similarity-attraction theories, we hypothesized that individuals' demographic characteristics, values, and personality influence their acquisition of central positions in their teams' social networks. Education and neuroticism predicted centrality five months later; individuals who were highly educated and low in neuroticism became high in advice and friendship centrality and low in adversarial centrality. Team members' values similarity to their teammates also predicted advice and friendship centrality; demographic similarity had limited effects.

The affective antecedents of cognitive social network activation

“…For instance, individual differences in personality can shape network structures, with highly neurotic people (who typically exhibit high negative affect) exhibiting lower centrality in networks (Klein et al, 2004), and lonely people finding themselves on the periphery of social networks (Cacioppo et al, 2009). Such research implies that the association between individual characteristics and network structures arise when affect leads to repulsion or attraction responses in others (Casciaro and Lobo, 2008), feedback which in turn could lead people to further withdraw from or engage with their networks (Derfler-Rozin et al, 2010).…”

Emergent Leadership in Virtual Collaboration Settings: A Social Network Analysis Approach

“…Brass, 1984;Brass and Burkhardt, 1992), as well as reflecting how closely an individual 'belongs' to a virtual group (Ahuja et al, 2003). An actor's central 'location' within a social network has significant consequences (see for example, Klein et al, 2004;Sparrowe et al, 2001), in the same way as the centrality of a network node can be a measure of its structural importance e among other attributes, such actors are in an advantageous position to control and monitor flows of information (Brass and Krackhardt, 1999;Shaw, 1964).…”

Personality and Political Discussion

“…Kalish and Robins (2006) find effects for both extraversion and emotional stability on the structure and closeness of networks. Klein et al (2004) examine how personality traits influence the role people play in their social networks. They find that individuals who are high in emotional stability are more likely to occupy a central role in their networks.…”