Herminia Ibarra

Homophily and Differential Returns: Sex Differences in Network Structure and Access in an Advertising Firm

Herminia Ibarra Harvard University This paper argues that two network mechanisms operate to create and reinforce gender inequalities in the organizational distribution of power: sex differences in homophily (i.e., tendency to form same-sex network relationships) and in the ability to convert individual attributes and positional resources into network advantages. These arguments were tested in a network analytic study of mens and womens interaction patterns in an advertising firm. Men were more likely to form homophilous ties across multiple networks and to have stronger homophilous ties, while women evidenced a differentiated network pattern in which they obtained social support and friendship from women and instrumental access through network ties to men. Although centrality in organization-wide networks did not vary by sex once controls were instituted, relative to women, men appeared to reap greater network returns from similar individual and positional resources, as well as from homophilous relationships.

Provisional Selves: Experimenting with Image and Identity in Professional Adaptation

This article describes how people adapt to new roles by experimenting with provisional selves that serve as trials for possible but not yet fully elaborated professional identities. Qualitative data collected from professionals in transition to more senior roles reveal that adaptation involves three basic tasks: (1) observing role models to identify potential identities, (2) experimenting with provisional selves, and (3) evaluating experiments against internal standards and external feedback. Choices within tasks are guided by an evolving repertory that includes images about the kind of professional one might become and the styles, skills, attitudes, and routines available to the person for constructing those identities. A conceptual framework is proposed in which individual and situational factors influence adaptation behaviors indirectly by shaping the repertory of possibilities that guides self-construction.

Network Centrality, Power, and Innovation Involvement: Determinants of Technical and Administrative Roles

The reported research investigated the relative impacts of individual attributes, formal position, and network centrality on the exercise of individual power, measured as involvement in technical a...

Power, Social Influence, and Sense Making: Effects of Network Centrality and Proximity on Employee Perceptions.

Funding for this study was generously supplied by the Organizational Behavior Department of Yale University and the Harvard Business School Division of Research. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Sunbelt International Social Network Conference, San Diego, 1990 and the Academy of Management Annual Meetings, Miami, 1991. The authors are grateful to Paul DiMaggio, David Krackhardt, Peter Marsden, and Ron Rice for helpful suggestions. We also profited greatly from comments provided by Marshall Meyer and this journals reviewers. This paper explores the hypothesis that network interaction patterns affect employee perceptions through two conceptually and empirically distinguishable mechanisms: localized social influence based on network proximity and systemic power based on network centrality. The study explores the relative contributions of individual attributes, formal organizational positions, network centrality, and network proximity in explaining individual variation in perceptions of work-related conditions in an advertising firm. Results suggest that network factors shape job-related perceptions, over and above the effects of individual attributes and formal positions. Both advice network centrality and friendship network proximity evidenced significant effects, although they were stronger for centrality than for proximity.

Zooming In and Out: Connecting Individuals and Collectivities at the Frontiers of Organizational Network Research

The role of individual action in the enactment of structures of constraint and opportunity has proved to be particularly elusive for network researchers. We propose three frontiers for future network research that zoom back and forth between individual and collective levels of analysis. First, we consider how dilemmas concerning social capital can be reconciled. Actors striving to reap maximal network advantages may benefit or detract from the collective good; investigating these trade-offs, we argue, will advance our understanding of learning and knowledge processes in organizations. Second, we explore identity emergence and change from a social network perspective. Insights about how networks mold and signal identity are a critical foundation for future work on career dynamics and the workplace experiences of members of diverse groups. Third, we consider how individual cognitions about shifting network connections affect, and are affected by, larger social structures. As scholarly interest in status and reputational signaling grows, articulating more clearly the cognitive foundations of organizational networks becomes imperative.

Identity work and play

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of identity play defined as peoples engagement in provisional but active trial of possible future selves.Design/methodology/approach – Current research and theorizing on the variety of strategies and behaviors used by individuals to tailor, adapt or otherwise change their identities has converged on the notion of identity work to conceptualize these processes. This paper introduces an alternative but complementary notion – identity play – and develops a framework that specifies how identity work and play differ from each other, and proposes a set of ideas about the process of identity play in role transitions.Findings – The authors theorize that role transitions are a useful context to explore identity play and that just as individuals move between cycles of career stability and professional transitions so may they move between periods of identity work and play.Originality/value – The concept of identity play provides a useful starting point...

Are you a collaborative leader

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