Differentiated Effect of Power and Status Hierarchy on Intrateam Trust: A Social Network Perspective

Whether hierarchy is functional or dysfunctional to team outcomes has been subjected to substantial debate, with mixed evidence supporting both the bright and dark sides of hierarchy. Although much scholarly attention has been devoted to identifying “when” hierarchy is functional, this research specifies a separate but equally important question - “what” hierarchy is functional. Indeed, the failure to investigate the effects of different types of hierarchies has limited our understanding of how hierarchy affects team dynamics. To address this oversight, this research provides a refined examination of the consequences to hierarchy by distinguishing between power and status hierarchy and employing a social network approach to delineate an important team dynamic, intrateam trust. This social network perspective better captures the previously overlooked emergent process and structural patterns (i.e., density and centralization) of intrateam trust that result from hierarchy in teams. Drawing on prior research on the distinction between power and status, we predict that power hierarchy is positively related to the intrateam trust network density and negatively related to trust network centralization, while status hierarchy is negatively related to intrateam trust network density and centralization. The results from two studies, using different measures of power and status, and using both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, partially supported our hypotheses. Taken together, these findings offer a potential resolution to conflicting findings about the effects of hierarchy on team outcomes.