Status in organizations: where evolutionary theory ranks

This paper briefly examines status amongst individuals in contemporary workplace organizations from an evolutionary perspective. The core thesis of this paper is that social and cultural explanations for status fail to adequately explain the pervasiveness of status in organizational contexts. An evolutionary perspective on status is introduced, which explicitly includes biological as well as social and cultural factors in an explanation of the pervasiveness of the construct. This approach is supported by a brief discussion of the evidence converging on the role of biological factors impacting upon status, and discussion of the possibilities for an evolutionary approach to research on status in organizations. An example is also provided of the type of new research that an evolutionary approach can generate. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.