Advancement Opportunity in the Context of Workgroup: A Social Network Perspective

Abstract

Drawing upon social exchange theory, I contend that a focal employees' centrality in the friendship network is associated with his/her advancement opportunity, which in turn relates to employees' organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). Furthermore, I extend the theory to the workgroup context and assert that the workgroup structural attribute of task interdependence influences the indirect relationship between friendship network centrality and OCB via advancement opportunity. Multi-level modeling using multi-source data from 251 employees nested in 36 workgroups showed a positive relationship between friendship network centrality and advancement opportunity with advancement opportunity mediating the relationship between friendship network centrality and OCB. Moreover, moderation analysis revealed that workgroup task interdependence strengthened the relationship between friendship network centrality and advancement opportunity. Finally, moderated mediation path analysis showed that the indirect effect of friendship network centrality on OCB via advancement opportunity was stronger in workgroups with high task interdependence. Implications and directions for multi-level and social network research are discussed.