Seeing Networks Clearly：The Influence of Holistic-Analytic Thinking Styles on Network Perception and Coalition Formation

Abstract

Accurate knowledge of who knows whom in organizations have important benefits for individual work performance and managerial decision making, but people are not very accurate when recalling connections among others in their social networks. The present study investigates how holisticanalytic thinking styles influence the extent people can accurately perceive network relationships and choose the right persons to form a coalition in a fictious persuasive task. We focused on two dimensions of holistic-analytic thinking style, namely, attention to field (as opposed to parts) and interactionist (as opposed to dispositionist) causal theory. Results from 281 participants reveals that while individuals with greater attention to field were more accurate in recalling relationships in a social network, those inclined toward interactionism in causal theory were less accurate. Furthermore, greater attention to field enhanced the effectiveness of coalition member selection, in part through the mediation of accurate network perception; while interactionism, via the full mediation of network perception, indirectly led to less effective coalition choice.