Values that Shape Hierarchies: Group Culture and Individuals' Status in Organizations

Sandra Spataro (sandra.spataro@yale.edu) and Cameron Anderson (c-anderson2@kellogg.northwestern.edu)
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Sandra Spataro: School of Management
Cameron Anderson: Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management

Yale School of Management Working Papers from Yale School of Management

Abstract: Many status theories propose a link between a group's values and its status hierarchy, whereby individuals who possess characteristics that embody group values are accorded higher status. We tested this idea in three organizations with different task- and social-orientations, relating Big Five personality traits to peer-rated informal status. As hypothesized, Conscientiousness better predicted status than Extraversion in a more task oriented organization, but Extraversion better predicted status in a more socially oriented organization; both traits predicted status in an organization equally task and socially oriented. Further, Neuroticism predicted lower status in a socially oriented group, where presumably, negative emotion was particularly disruptive to social relationships. Taken together, these findings provide the most direct evidence of a link between groups' values and their hierarchies.

Keywords: Status; Power; Personality; Group Values; Big Five; Hierarchy; Groups; Organizations; Organizational Culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M5 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-08-26
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ysm:somwrk:ysm298

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