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Perceived Organizational Identification and Prototypicality as Origins of Knowledge Exchange Networks

Alberto Monti

Giuseppe Soda

Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks

ISBN: 978-1-78350-751-1, eISBN: 978-1-78350-752-8

Publication date: 14 July 2014

Abstract

Knowledge is critical for employee and firm success. We show that being perceived as prototypical organizational members is a source of prominence in knowledge exchange that operates beyond preexisting communication or affective relationships. Self-categorization processes produce – through depersonalization – a positive attitude among the members which represents an autonomous mechanism of social attraction for knowledge exchange, while social network mechanisms are triggered by interpersonal attraction. Our findings also suggest that including perceived members’ prototypicality can avoid a potentially spurious relationship in assessing the role played by social identity and categorization theory in explaining attitude and behaviors.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgment

Both authors contributed equally. We acknowledge the top management and all employees of the pseudonymous “Car Excellence,” who provided wonderful support for the research project carried out by Alberto Monti and Massimo Bergami. All mistakes are ours.

Citation

Monti, A. and Soda, G. (2014), "Perceived Organizational Identification and Prototypicality as Origins of Knowledge Exchange Networks", Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 40), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 357-379. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X(2014)0000040018

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited