Homophily, Communication, and Trust in Intraorganizational Relationships: The Example of South Korea

Abstract

Homophily is considered a behavioral construct representing the tendency of two communicating individuals to associate and bond with each other, based on their personal similarities. Another major factor in social relationships is communication. Both constructs have been separately studied for many years and both show a significant effect on a third important determinant of successful business relationships, that is, the emergence of trust. Nevertheless, whereas homophily and communication are necessary prerequisites, trust is the sufficient driver for perceived relationship quality and commitment in business relationships. In this research, we study the perceived quality of business relationships between coworkers and their relationship commitment to each other in an intraorganizational setting, since literature in that area is scarce. For addressing hypothesized relations between homophily, communication and the central role of trust on our dependent constructs perceived relationship quality and commitment we apply structural equation modeling. We analyze a sample of n = 254 self-completed questionnaires from employees of international companies in South Korea, a country where homophily and social ties are omnipresent, and discuss management implications and further research questions.