Journal Articles

Network Churn : The Effects of Self-Monitoring Personality on Brokerage Dynamics

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The apparent stability of social network structures may mask considerable change and adjustment in the ties that make up the networks. In this study, we theorize and test—using longitudinal data on friendship relations from a radiology department located in the Netherlands—the idea that the characteristics of this “network churn” and the resultant brokerage dynamics are traceable to individual differences in self-monitoring personality. High self-monitors were more likely than low self-monitors to attract new friends and to occupy new bridging positions over time. In comparison to low self-monitors, the new friends that high self-monitors attracted tended to be relative strangers, in the sense that they were unconnected with previous friends, came from different functions, and more efficiently increased the number of structural holes in the resultant network. Our study suggests that dispositional forces help shape the dynamic structuring of networks: individuals help (re)create the social network structures they inhabit.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Administration Science Quarterly

Call Number

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Publisher

New York : Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management., 2010

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

00018392

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Vol. 55, No. 4 December 2010. pp. 639-670

Subject(s)

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