Organizational Redesign, Knowledge Transfer, and the Formation of New Boundary-Spanning Ties

Abstract

In this study we examine the interplay between change in formal structure and informal social networks within organizations. Drawing on social capital and social exchange theories, we derive hypotheses about how interaction between cohesion and diversity in personal advice networks that organizational participants maintain before an organizational redesign affects their propensity to form boundary- spanning ties after it. We test our hypotheses using new data that we have collected within a large healthcare organization that has recently experienced a major organizational redesign and change. The results indicate that both cohesion and diversity of personal advice networks significantly affect the propensity of organizational participants to access knowledge across boundaries after a change in internal organizational structures and processes. In line with our hypotheses, the results also suggest that cohesion and diversity have opposite effects on the propensity of organizational participants to access knowledge across boundaries after the change depending on their dominant network role (sender or recipient) in the network of informal advice relations before the change. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on organizational change, knowledge transfer, and intra-organizational networks.