The Role of Self-Monitoring and Motivation on Discretionary Advice: Evidence From a Field Study

Abstract

Despite the pivotal role that self-monitoring plays in a multitude of social exchange situations and the preference of high self-monitors to look good in the eyes of others, relatively little is known about the role of self-monitoring on discretionary advice tie formation. This paper addresses tie formation choices relative to one’s opportunity seeking triggers. Based on the embeddedness literature and self-monitoring theory we develop and empirically test two hypotheses on the interrelation between self-monitoring (trait), motivation (trigger) and discretionary advice seeking (action). Drawing on data collected at a global pharmaceutical company, and based on a quantitative analysis using dyad-level regression models with multiway clustered observations, our findings suggest high self-monitors preferentially reach out to dissimilar others in advice seeking. We find intrinsic motivation to mitigate this effect amongst high self-monitors such that enjoyability positively stimulates self-monitoring ability. Extrinsic motivation, in turn, moderates the positive effect of self-monitoring on the formation of new ties such that external rewards positively stimulate self-monitoring sensitivity. Our findings nuance the notion that high self-monitors are more likely to engage in advice seeking activity than low self-monitors, suggesting one’s motivational preference to moderate this relation as trigger towards actual action. We conclude with discussing the implications of these findings for the study of social exchange processes in an intra-organizational and innovation aspiring context.