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Our current understanding of interorganizational networks rests on a substantial body of empirical evidence predicated upon the implicit assumption that organizations may be adequately represented as unitary network nodes. Yet, the existence of differentiated and partially changeable internal structures is one of the defining features of organizations as collective social actors. Network representations of interorganizational relations that preclude the possibility of nodes with changeable internal structure are analytically convenient. They are also theoretically incomplete and empirically implausible. This paper goes beyond our current understanding by proposing a novel class of network models that explicitly recognizes this constitutive aspect of organizations as collective actors. The model posits that processes of (internal) organizational and (external) network change shape one another, coevolving over time. We demonstrate that a model where organizational and network structure coevolve can reproduce with considerable accuracy the structure of interorganizational networks, the internal structure of the network nodes, and the distribution of organizational activities at the field level. Additionally, we illustrate how the model may assist in identifying and apportioning the mechanisms behind the tendency of interdependent organizations to have similar internal structures that is frequently observed in studies of interorganizational networks. An analysis of data that we have collected on networks of collaborative relations within a community of health care organizations exemplifies the compelling theoretical and empirical possibilities afforded by abandoning the analytically convenient assumption of organizations as unitary network nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decades have witnessed an increasing appeal for considering the critical roles individuals play in facilitating the building and leveraging patterns of social relations in organizations for their benefits at work in response to the extreme structural perspective, which regards individual behaviors, affect, cognitions, and other outcomes as the result of social structure in which individuals are embedded. Recent methodological advances and theoretical frameworks have opened the door for researchers to examine the interplay of individual attributes and social networks with greater fidelity. The papers in this symposium build on these recent developments. The result is a set of papers that explore the dynamic relationship between various individual attributes and intraorganizational networks and, in doing so, give a more accurate account of the reciprocal relationship between individual agency and social structure. Specifically, the first two papers explore the processes through which network brokerage and individual predispositions (i.e., personality traits and different types of brokerage orientations) mutually influence each other over time. The third paper investigates the dynamic relationship between work self-efficacy and help-seeking network ties and how the strength of this relationship is dependent upon a focal employee's predisposition for self-monitoring. The last paper examines the effect of friends' turnover on employees' organizational commitment and how its direction and magnitude vary as a function of leavers' organizational commitment and the stayers' gender. These cutting-edge research projects aim to spur discussions on the complex and multifaceted phenomenon of the dynamic interplay between individual attributes and social networks. The Effect of Brokerage Orientation and Structural Brokerage on Network and Performance Dynamics Author: Andrew Parker; Durham U. Business School Author: Steffen Triebel; U. of Exeter Business School Author: Christian Waldstrom; Aarhus U. Brokerage, Personality Change, and Performance Author: Stefano Tasselli; U. of Exeter Business School The Coevolution of Work Self-Efficacy and Help-Seeking Ties Author: Travis Grosser; U. of Connecticut Author: Ziyue Cui; The U. of Connecticut Author: Robert Wilhelm Krause; Gatton College of Business and Economics, U. of Kentucky Changing Commitment After Friends' Turnover? The Roles of Leavers' Commitment and Stayers' Gender Author: Shihan Li; Heinz College - Carnegie Mellon U. Author: Nynke Niezink; Carnegie Mellon U. - Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agency issue is at the conceptual core of organizational social network research and theory because it concerns the relations between individual choices and the system of interdependencies that the interplay between people and structure involves. This tension concerning agency has surfaced in social network theory since its beginnings and gained popularity in the last decade, influencing leading theoretical approaches to organizational social networks. In this panel symposium, in which we invited leading scholars in the field, we aim to build consensus on the relevance of network agency for current research in management and adjacent disciplines, address its critical issues and controversies, and envisage future research implications and directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]