Marc-David L. Seidel

Offering a Job: Meritocracy and Social Networks.

This study focuses on the impact of sex, race, and social networks, to analyze the hiring process in a midsized high‐technology organization, using information on all 35,229 applicants in a 10‐year period (1985–94). For gender, the process is entirely meritocratic: age and education account for all sex differences. But even without taking into account the two meritocratic variables, there are small if no differences between men and women at all stages in the hiring process. For ethnic minorities, the process is partly meritocratic but partly reliant upon social networks. Once referral method is taken into account, all race effects disappear. In hiring, ethnic minorities are thus disadvantaged in the processes that take place before the organization is contacted. They lack access to or utilize less well the social networks that lead to high success in getting hired.

Friends in High Places: The Effects of Social Networks on Discrimination in Salary Negotiations:

This article tests hypotheses about the effects of social networks on inequitable salary negotiation outcomes using a U.S. high-technology companys salary negotiation data for 1985–1995. Analyzing results of 3,062 actual salary negotiations, we found that members of racial minority groups negotiated significantly lower salary increases than majority members, but this effect was dramatically reduced when we controlled for social ties to the organization. Having a social tie to the organization significantly increased salary negotiation outcomes, and minorities were less likely than majority members to have such a social tie.

Motivation and Opportunity: The Role of Remote Work, Demographic Dissimilarity, and Social Network Centrality in Impression Management

This study examined relationships among remote work, demographic dissimilarity, social network centrality, and the use and effectiveness of impression management behaviors. In our findings, a highe...

Research Impact: How Seemingly Innocuous Social Cues in A CEO Survey Can Lead to Change in Board of Director Network Ties

This study extends earlier research suggesting that board network ties may reflect the strategic and/or political concerns of top managers by considering how the managerial objectives that drive the formation and maintenance of board interlock ties may be subject to social influence. The particular form of social influence examined in this study derives from the social network research process itself. Specifically, we draw from research on social information processing and the framing of information to suggest how the administration of social network surveys can influence managers’ perceptions about their relationship to directors and the potential benefits to be derived from director network ties, thus affecting their subsequent selection of board members in ways that change the firm’s board interlock ties.We also consider how this social influence effect may diffuse beyond the actual survey respondents to create a more pervasive influence on the actions of managers at other firms in the board interlock network. We test our theoretical argument with an original quasiexperiment in which CEOs are randomly assigned to different versions of a survey questionnaire that have the potential to prime different schemata about the possible benefits to be derived from board network ties. Beyond addressing the potential for social influence in the formation and maintenance of board network ties, our study also addresses the potential for unintended reactive measurement effects in social network research, wherein network surveys influence the very ties that they are designed to measure.

An Initial Description of the C-Form

This chapter seeks to enhance organizational theorys current typology of organizational architectures to explain a flourishing modern architecture that has developed utilizing the inexpensive communication paths created by technology such as the Internet and wireless networks. As communication and coordination costs have dropped, new organizing methods have grown that are difficult to understand using the traditional organizational architectures. In this chapter, we introduce a new community architecture, the “C-form,” which is categorized by (1) fluid, informal peripheral boundaries of membership; (2) significant incorporation of voluntary labor; (3) information-based product output; and (4) significantly open sharing of knowledge. Although the domain of open source software (OSS) is frequently cited as an example of such communities, we argue that the form expands well beyond the domain of software to a wide variety of information-based products. Drawing on a culture frame, we develop an initial set of principles of C-forms and finally explore the implications of the C-form for the modern organizational world.

In and Out of the Ethnic Economy: A Longitudinal Analysis of Ethnic Networks and Pathways to Economic Success across Immigrant Categories†

The economic benefits to immigrants of taking jobs in ethnic workplaces, relative to the open economy, are heavily debated. We examine longitudinally differences across immigrant categories in how the choice of ethnic or non-ethnic workplace influences the ethnic composition of social networks and how these factors impact immigrants’ economic success. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada, with data 6 months, 2 years, and 4 years after arrival, we find support for both sides of the ethnic economy debate when it is qualified by immigrant category. While economic immigrants benefit from non-ethnic workplaces, family immigrants face economic penalties in the open economy and do better in ethnic workplaces. We argue that policies sorting immigrants into visa categories do much of the work of leading them into segmented paths of incorporation.

The Impact of Adolescent Work in Family Business on Child–Parent Relationships and Psychological Well-Being:

Previous ecological theory of human development research shows mixed results concerning the impact of adolescent work on psychological and family outcomes. We show the consequences of working in the family firm on adolescents’ parental relationships, self-esteem, and depression, highlighting the importance of high-quality work experiences in the early life course. Weighted regression analysis of longitudinal data from Statistics Canada’s National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth shows that those adolescents who work in their family firms on a year-round basis report a better relationship with their parents, and better psychological well-being than their nonfamily firm working counterparts.

Emergence: How Novelty, Growth, and Formation Shape Organizations and Their Ecosystems

In social theory, emergence is the process of novelty (1) creation, (2) growth, and (3) formation into a recognizable social object, process, or structure. Emergence is recognized as important for the existence of novel features of society such as new organizations, new practices, or new relations between actors. In this introduction to the volume on emergence, we introduce a framework for examining emergence processes and theories that have been applied or can be applied to each of the three stages. We also review each volume chapter and discuss their relation to each other. Finally, we make suggestions on the future of research on social emergence processes.

Beneficial “child labor”: The impact of adolescent work on future professional outcomes

Purpose Theories of income inequality frequently cite child and adolescent labor as a societal problem. In contrast to such theories, we propose that path dependency coupled with enhancement of human and social capital enables some adolescents who work to find more attractive jobs later in life. Methodology Using the longitudinal Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) spanning over 10 years, we find support for a positive relationship between adolescents’ number of work hours and future desirable professional outcomes such as being employed, income, person-organization fit, knowing where to look for a job, and career networking. Findings The positive relationship, in many instances, is curvilinear and highlights the downfall of working excessive hours. We also explore whether adolescent work for a stranger or family member leads to different outcomes, and find that working in a family business leads to enhanced later life utilization of career networks as well as better personorganization fit. Social implications While we find that adolescent work intensity is linked to positive later life outcomes such as higher income, better fitting jobs, and better career networks, we also find maxima whereby additional hours worked have a diminishing effect on the outcomes. This suggests the need for societal norms and/or laws to avoid excessive adolescent work. Value of chapter The findings in this chapter shed light on the role of early life work experiences in future professional outcomes. We show that certain types of adolescent employment can enhance future career prospects, counter to much of the established literature on the detrimental impact of youth labor.

Questioning Centralized Organizations in a Time of Distributed Trust

Imagine meeting a stranger and entering into a trusted economic exchange without needing a third party to vouch for you. What changes in your theoretical perspective in such a world? That model of interaction is what distributed trust technologies such as blockchain bring. I introduce the basic concept of distributed trust, describe some early instances, and highlight how organizational theories need to be updated to no longer rely upon fundamental assumptions about trust which are becoming outdated. Distributed trust fundamentally transforms boundaries of organizations and challenges assumptions about internalizing organizational functions to overcome market trust coordination issues. Implicit assumptions about the legitimacy and power of central network positions no longer ring true. This is very fertile ground for organizations research as the core tenet of the field—what roles and functions should group together within an organization—is being called into question at the most fundamental level.