A Tale of Two Hierarchies: Interactive Effects of Power Differentiation and Status Differentiation on Team Performance

Nicholas A. Hays (), Huisi (Jessica) Li (), Xue Yang (), Jo K. Oh (), Andrew Yu (), Ya-Ru Chen (), John R. Hollenbeck () and Bradley B. Jamieson ()
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Nicholas A. Hays: Broad College of Business, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824
Huisi (Jessica) Li: Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Xue Yang: School of Business (Management), Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China
Jo K. Oh: School of Business, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269
Andrew Yu: Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
Ya-Ru Chen: S.C. Johnson School of Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
John R. Hollenbeck: Broad College of Business, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824
Bradley B. Jamieson: Broad College of Business, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824

Organization Science, 2022, vol. 33, issue 6, 2085-2105

Abstract: Scholars have long wrestled with whether hierarchical differentiation is functional or dysfunctional for teams. Building on emerging research that emphasizes the distinction between power (i.e., control over resources) and status (i.e., respect from others), we aim to help reconcile the functional and dysfunctional accounts of hierarchy by examining the effects of power differentiation on team performance, contingent on status differentiation. We theorize that power differentiation is dysfunctional for teams with high status differentiation by increasing knowledge hiding, which undermines team performance. In contrast, we predict that power differentiation is functional for teams with low status differentiation by decreasing knowledge hiding, which improves team performance. In a field study, we found that power differentiation harmed team performance via knowledge hiding in teams with high status differentiation, but power differentiation had no effect on knowledge hiding or performance in teams with low status differentiation. In an experiment, we again found that power differentiation harmed team performance by increasing knowledge hiding in teams with high status differentiation. However, power differentiation improved team performance by decreasing knowledge hiding in teams with status equality. Finally, in a third study, we confirm the role of status differentiation in making team climates more competitive and examine the effect of power-status alignment within teams, finding that misalignment exacerbates the dysfunctional effects of power differentiation in teams with high status differentiation. By examining how power and status hierarchies operate in tandem, this work underscores the need to take a more nuanced approach to studying hierarchy in teams.

Keywords: power; status; hierarchical differentiation; team performance; knowledge hiding; work teams (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:33:y:2022:i:6:p:2085-2105

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