Otner, Sarah
(2013)
Only another way station: status allocation in electronic networks of practice.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
The organizational literature concerning status has focused on its consequences
more than its antecedents; moreover, the research that has addressed status origins has
drawn its evidence from traditional face-to-face organizations, featuring task-focused
and/or enduring groups. The present research addresses both of these literature gaps
by examining how individuals in global, distributed, electronic networks of practice
allocate status in a legitimate hierarchy. Taking as its context one of the first of these
organizations – the SAP Community Network – this dissertation employed the
DELPHI Method, AllOurIdeas.org, and panel data to leverage a research design that
kept distinct status antecedents and outcomes, and yielded five distinct contributions to
knowledge. First, it identified an unambiguous, unified structure of status – providing
powerful clarification against its cognate constructs. Second, it challenged the
attenuation principle of Status Characteristics Theory by suggesting that additional,
similar status information does not contribute less to status allocation. Third, it
indicated that the factors which effect status allocation differ depending on the level of
status being determined; moreover, status establishment might function differently than
either status maintenance or status enhancement. Fourth, the present research revealed
that to the extent that status characteristics affect status allocation, they do so through
the mechanism of performance; in other words, organizational culture can downgrade
ascription and engage performance during status allocation. Fifth, the present findings
challenge the argument for perpetual returns to initial high status – i.e., the Mertonian
Matthew Effect – but do support Merton’s Phenomenon of the 41st
Chair. Managerial
practice must now recognize how organizational structure and culture can influence
status allocation, which has implications for the strategic use of multiple routes to status
in the achievement of organizational goals. Through focusing on a new, yet prevalent
organizational form, the present research significantly advanced status theory in
organizations.
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