Bill McEvily

Network Structure and Knowledge Transfer: The Effects of Cohesion and Range:

This research considers how different features of informal networks affect knowledge transfer. As a complement to previous research that has emphasized the dyadic tie strength component of informal networks, we focus on how network structure influences the knowledge transfer process. We propose that social cohesion around a relationship affects the willingness and motivation of individuals to invest time, energy, and effort in sharing knowledge with others. We further argue that the network range, ties to different knowledge pools, increases a persons ability to convey complex ideas to heterogeneous audiences. We also examine explanations for knowledge transfer based on absorptive capacity, which emphasizes the role of common knowledge, and relational embeddedness, which stresses the importance of tie strength. We investigate the network effect on knowledge transfer using data from a contract R&D firm. The results indicate that both social cohesion and network range ease knowledge transfer, over and above the effect for the strength of the tie between two people. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on effective knowledge transfer, social capital, and information diffusion.

Bridging ties: a source of firm heterogeneity in competitive capabilities

What explains differences in firms’ abilities to acquire competitive capabilities? In this paper we propose that a firm’s embeddedness in a network of ties is an important source of variation in the acquisition of competitive capabilities. We argue that firms in geographical clusters that maintain networks rich in bridging ties and sustain ties to regional institutions are well‐positioned to access new information, ideas, and opportunities. Hypotheses based on these ideas were tested on a stratified random sample of 227 job shop manufacturers located in the Midwest United States. Data were gathered using a mailed questionnaire. Results from structural equation modeling broadly support the embeddedness hypotheses and suggest a number of insights about the link between firms’ networks and the acquisition of competitive capabilities. Copyright

Trust as an Organizing Principle

Although research on trust in an organizational context has advanced considerably in recent years, the literature has yet to produce a set of generalizable propositions that inform our understanding of the organization and coordination of work. We propose that conceptualizing trust as an organizing principle is a powerful way of integrating the diverse trust literature and distilling generalizable implications for how trust affects organizing. We develop the notion of trust as an organizing principle by specifying structuring and mobilizing as two sets of causal pathways through which trust influences several important properties of organizations. We further describe specific mechanisms within structuring and mobilizing that influence interaction patterns and organizational processes. The principal aim of the framework is to advance the literature by connecting the psychological and sociological micro-foundations of trust with the macro-bases of organizing. The paper concludes by demonstrating how the framework can be applied to yield novel insights into traditional views of organizations and to stimulate original and innovative avenues of organizational research that consider both the benefits and downsides of trust.

Free to Be Trusted? Organizational Constraints on Trust in Boundary Spanners

We present a view of trust in boundary spanners as explained by the extent of role autonomy, a multidimensional concept that reflects the discretion that agents have in interpreting and enacting their roles. We argue that, in a buyer-supplier context, purchasing managers will be trusted to a greater extent by supplier representatives when they are free from constraints that limit their ability to interpret their boundary-spanning roles. We conceptualize and measure three key components of role autonomy: Functional influence, tenure, and clan culture. Taken together, these components of role autonomy shape and define the purchasing managers willingness and capacity to make and uphold commitments to supplier representatives. Role autonomy permits purchasing managers to engage in discretionary behaviors that allow supplier representatives to learn about their underlying motives and intentions. We test hypotheses linking the components of role autonomy to trust on a sample of 119 buyer-supplier relationships. We use a dyadic research design that combines data from purchasing managers and supplier representatives. The results suggest that granting purchasing managers greater autonomy enhances supplier representative trust in purchasing managers. By drawing attention to role autonomy as a feature of organizations that influences trust we highlight the importance of organizational context in contributing to a deeper understanding of trust.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Managing Knowledge in Organizations: Creating, Retaining, and Transferring Knowledge

Interest in the issues of organizational learning and knowledge management on the part of academics and practitioners increased dramatically in recent years. On the practical side, changes in technology and modes of organizing work, globalization, and increased competition brought the issues of organizational learning and knowledge management to center stage for organizations. New developments in computing and information technology enabled the retention and transfer of information in organizations on a larger scale than was once possible. Shifts to more distributed modes of organizing work made knowledge transfer a priority for firms. The greater prevalence of the multiunit organizational form, such as a franchise or chain (Baum and Greve 2001), and the greater frequency of interorganizational relationships (Powell et al. 1996) also increased the importance of knowledge transfer for firms. Parallel to the surge in interest among practitioners, academic interest in organizational learning and knowledge management also grew considerably, as evidenced by the proliferation of books and articles recently published on the subject.1 In addition, a

Measuring trust in organisational research: Review and recommendations

Abstract Although the organisational literature is increasingly converging on common definitions and theoretical conceptualisations of trust, it is unclear whether the same is true for the measures used to operationalise trust. In this paper, we review the organisational literature to assess the degree of sophistication and convergence across studies in how trust has been measured. Our analysis of 171 papers published over 48 years revealed that the state of the art of trust measurement is rudimentary and highly fragmented. In particular, we identified a total of 129 different measures of trust. Moreover, in only 24 instances were we able to verify that a previously developed and validated measure of trust had been replicated verbatim, and 11 of these replications were by the same authors who originated the measure. In addition to the limited degree of replication, the measurement of trust in the organisational literature is characterised by weak evidence in support of construct validity and limited consensus on operational dimensions. What makes these findings even more surprising is that our review also identified several measures of trust that have been carefully developed and thoroughly validated. We profile those measures with strong measurement properties and discuss their trade-offs. We also present a framework for measuring trust that provides guidance to researchers for selecting or developing a measure of trust and propose an agenda for future research with an emphasis on resolving enduring debates in the literature.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Trust in an Organizational Context

Bill McEvily • Vincenzo Perrone • Akbar Zaheer, Guest Editors Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-3890 The Institute of Organization and MIS, Bocconi University, 20136 Milan, Italy Strategic Management and Organization Department, Carlson School of Management 3-365, University of Minnesota, 321 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 bmcevily@andrew.cmu.edu • vincenzo.perrone@uni-bocconi.it • azaheer@csom.umn.edu

Reorganizing the Boundaries of Trust: From Discrete Alternatives to Hybrid Forms

In this essay I propose that trust be reconceptualized as a family of hybrid form concepts. I argue that trust and risk frequently co-occur and overlap. In conjunction, the concepts produce hybrid social judgments that combine elements of trust and risk. The point of overlap among trust and risk centers on the choice to be vulnerable to the decisions and actions of another party. However, the types of decision making and information processing involved represent important differences between the two types of social judgments. Whereas risk involves probabilistic decision making and more controlled information processing, trust involves heuristic decision making and more automatic information processing. I conclude with a discussion of new directions for organizational research based on the notion of hybrid forms of trust.

More Formally: Rediscovering the Missing Link between Formal Organization and Informal Social Structure

AbstractAlthough foundational organization theory recognized the role of both formal and informal elements, for the past two decades scholarship appears to have primarily attended to the role of in...

Does Trust Still Matter? Research on the Role of Trust in Inter-Organizational Exchange

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Reinhard Bachmann and Jared Harris for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chatper.