An article coauthored with Markus Kreutzer & Karin Kreutzer (both at EBS Universität) has just been published in the Journal of Management Studies:

Setting the Tone for the Team: A Multi-Level Analysis of Managerial Control, Peer Control, and their Consequences for Job Satisfaction and Team Performance

In this study, we develop a multi-level theoretical framework linking antecedents and outcomes of peer control, defined as team members at the same hierarchical level noticing and responding to their peers’ behaviour or performance. Analysing multi-level data from 356 volunteers and 58 regional teams in a non-profit organization, we examine top-down managerial controls as antecedents of lateral peer control, both directly (i.e., monitoring and responding directly to peers) and indirectly (i.e., gossiping about and avoiding underperforming peers), and peer control’s effects on individual- and team-level outcomes. In line with our predictions, we find formal managerial control and clan control to be antecedents of peer control, albeit with differential effects on direct and indirect peer control. We also find a significant association between peer control and both individual-level job satisfaction and team-level performance, but again, with crucial differences between the two types of peer controls and the two outcomes. Our study contributes to the development of a better theoretical understanding of peer control, sheds light on inconsistent findings across prior studies, provides novel insights into how team leaders can influence team members’ individual satisfaction and team-level performance via peer control, and reveals important trade-offs with regards to peer control’s influence on individual-
and team-level outcomes.

Keywords: formal and informal (clan) control, job satisfaction, multi-level analysis, non-profit organizations, organizational control, peer control, team performance, volunteers

Thanks to Adam Grant for featuring our research on reconnecting dormant ties in his New York Times column!

Given the circumstances we find ourselves in, which are forcing us to socially distance ourselves, (virtually) reconnecting with our dormant contacts can help a great deal to combat social isolation.

Read the full article for more.

Happy to share that our symposium “The Role of Memory and Cognition (vs. Activity and Behavior) in Social Networks” co-organized and co-chaired by Daniel Z. Levin (Rutgers) and myself was selected as a “Showcase Symposium” and the Winner of the Organizational Behavior Division Best Symposium Award!

This year’s Academy of Management Annual Meeting is happening in Boston, MA. My co-authors and I are represented on the program with two presentations:

• Levin, D. Z. & Walter, J. (2019). Is tie maintenance really necessary?
• Ross, J. R., Mehra, A., Levin, D. Z., Walter, J. (2019). Dormant ties: A review and agenda for research.

Both presentations are part of a symposium Daniel and I organized:

• “The Role of Memory and Cognition (vs. Activity and Behavior) in Social Networks.” Presenters: Jiyin Cao (Stony Brook), Edward Bishop Smith (Northwestern), You-Ta Chuang (York), Fu-Sheng Tsai (Cheng Shiu), Wenpin Tsai (Pennsylvania State), Martin J. Kilduff (University College London), Tiziana Casciaro (Toronto), Jason Rekus Ross (Kentucky), & Ajay Mehra (Kentucky). Discussant: Ronald S. Burt (Chicago).

I was also honored by receiving an “Outstanding Reviewer Award” by the Strategy Division.