EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Resilience of information flow during restructuring: Characterizing information value being exchanged and the structure of a network under turmoil

Hendrik Leendert Aalbers and Wilfred Dolfsma ()

Journal of Business Research, 2019, vol. 100, issue C, 299-310

Abstract: Based on a unique before-and-after research design for a study of a large financial services provider, this paper demonstrates how a sudden and substantial reduction in the number of formal positions affects an organization's voluntary ideation network in unexpected ways. The network of relations maintained to voluntarily (informally) exchange new ideas within a firm is more resilient to exogenous restructuring than the current literature suggests. Drawing on network theory, we show that the positioning of employees in an organization's instrumental workflow network prior to a major restructuring determines the degree to which they remain engaged with ideation activity. In addition, drawing on social exchange theory, we predict and find that the value of inputs provided to peers prior to downsizing positively moderates the likelihood that ideation activity persists. Thus, we contribute to research on organization restructuring and the evolution of social relations under conditions of uncertainty.

Keywords: Intra-firm networks; Restructuring; Downsizing; Value of inputs; Discretionary activity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296319301754
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:100:y:2019:i:c:p:299-310

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.03.003

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:100:y:2019:i:c:p:299-310