The demographic antecedents and performance consequences of the social‐network structure in work teams

Purpose – Businesses are increasingly using teams as their fundamental organisational unit. This paper aims to explore the impact of demographic antecedents and the social‐network structure, measured in terms of task‐related advice‐network density, centralisation and fragmentation, on work‐team performance. The paper seeks to examine: the impact of the social‐network structure (dense, fragmented or centralised) on work‐team performance and the origins of the social structure. It also tests whether team diversity (in terms of variety with regard to gender and separation with regard to age and education) has an impact on team performance. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted on 76 work teams (499 employees) representing 48 different organisations. Findings – With regard to the first question, density was positively related to team performance. The impact of advice‐network fragmentation was also positive, and this is in line with the results of other studies focusing on teams conducting standard tasks. In addressing the second question the paper explored whether diversity as variety (age) and diversity as separation (age and education) had an effect on the work team's social‐network structure. Age and education had no effect, but gender diversity was related negatively to density and positively to fragmentation. It was also related negatively to team performance. Originality/value – The contribution of this research is twofold in that it explores social‐structure effects on team performance and examines the possible antecedents of the team's social structure. The results of the investigation strengthen the rationale behind integrating the literature on social‐network analysis and teams.