Men’s and Women’s Informal Social Networks in a Team-Structured Investments Company

1. Men’s and Women’s Informal Social Networks in a Team-Structured Investments Company Vernon A. Woodley The University of Iowa

2. Research on Self-managing Teams • Self managing teams among the most widely adopted strategy • Teams at department stores, grocery stores, manufacturing, white collar professionals • Most research comes from management and organization and tends to emphasize productivity – teams said to increase productivity • Less emphasis given to the impact on employees, specifically women and minorities

3. The Case for Self-Managing Teams • Some scholars argue that team-structured organizations have the potential to stem gender and inequality in the workplace. • The use of self-managed teams, should allow women and minorities to benefit from increased visibility and cross-cutting socialties to more influential persons within an organization (Heckscher 1988; Acker 2006; Smith-Doerr 2004). • Empirical evidence: Burt (1992, 1998) and Ibarra (1993,1997) found that men and women had similar networks in work organizations, but they did not look at men and women in firms with self-managing teams.

4. Research Question and Hypotheses • Do men and women in self-managing teams build similar informal social networks? • H1. Women in self-managing teams will build similar networks to their male counterparts. • H2. Women in self-managing teams will be more central in their informal networks than women who do participate in teams.

5. Method • Survey of “special project” teams and regular work team (Feb and June) • A six month period of teams observation (January – June) • Twenty-nine semi-structured interviews (35-50 minutes, 1 for 2hrs) • Sample size -(63% Female, 37% male in sample of 81), inline with national average in finance operations • Questions: demographics, education, income, work experience, job satisfaction, commitment, perception of teams, opportunities for leadership and team work, personal social networks

6. Figure 1. Sociogram of All Informal Network Ties by Gender and Function Color Key: Women: Team; Nonteam Men: Team; Nonteam Shape Key: O Circle – Support Staff ■ Square – Professional staff ▲Up triangle – Junior Manager ┼Box – Middle manager ▼Down triangle – Upper manager NB. Node size indicate in-degree centrality

7. Figure 2. Sociogram of After Work Network Ties by Gender and Function Figure 3. Sociogram of After Work Social Network by Gender and Function Color Key: Women: Team; Nonteam Men: Team; Nonteam Shape Key: O Circle – Support Staff ■ Square – Professional staff ▲Up triangle – Junior Manager ┼Box – Middle manager ▼Down triangle – Upper manager Color Key: Women: Team; Nonteam Men: Team; Nonteam Shape Key: O Circle – Support Staff ■ Square – Professional staff ▲Up triangle – Junior Manager ┼Box – Middle manager ▼Down triangle – Upper manager NB. Node size indicate betweenness centrality

8. Figure 3. Sociogram of Friendship Ties by Gender and Function Color Key: Women: Team; Nonteam Men: Team; Nonteam Shape Key: O Circle – Support Staff ■ Square – Professional staff ▲Up triangle – Junior Manager ┼Box – Middle manager ▼Down triangle – Upper manager

9. Figure 2. Sociogram of Acquaintances Network by Gender and Function Figure 4. Sociogram of K-Cores Subgroups in Informal Networks Color Key: Women: Team; Nonteam Men: Team; Nonteam Shape Key: O Circle – Support Staff ■ Square – Professional staff ▲Up triangle – Junior Manager ┼Box – Middle manager ▼Down triangle – Upper manager Color Key: Women: Team; Nonteam Men: Team; Nonteam Shape Key: O Circle – Support Staff ■ Square – Professional staff ▲Up triangle – Junior Manager ┼Box – Middle manager ▼Down triangle – Upper manager

10. Summary • Men and women have similar networks in team structured organizations. • The main subdivisions in the informal network were not by gender, but by whether men and women worked in self-managing teams. Women in teams occupied central positions and were apart of the core group. • This supports the argument that teams could improve opportunities for women. • Future research will examine whether the network structure results in favorable work outcomes for women in teams.