Upward Influencers in Teams
Upward influencers, employees that are more favorably perceived by their supervisors than their peers and subordinates, are predicted by economic and accounting theories and are found to be ubiquitous in many organizations. Despite their prevalence, whether having them in teams can impact team performance outcomes is generally underexplored. This paper fills this void by using proprietary data from a service-providing organization that allows for identification of upward influencers based on its 360-degree person evaluation. Our identification strategy relies on the plausibly exogenous team assignment at the organization with team performance being evaluated by clients. We find that the relationship between the proportion of upward influencers in a team and team performance is nonlinear and exhibits an inverted-U shape. Further tests and additional survey evidence show that upward influencers impair team horizontal relationships through worse communication, knowledge sharing, mutual assistance among team members, team satisfaction and perceptions of fairness. Meanwhile, teams with upward influencers build better vertical relationships with supervisors and in returns, supervisors allocate more of their time to provide team members with feedback and guidance. Finally, we show that the impact of upward influencers on team performance is more pronounced when the need for collaboration and information sharing is high and when managers are less experienced. Taken together, this study contributes to the understanding of upward influencers in teams and highlights the importance of team composition and managerial experience
Year of publication: |
[2023]
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Authors: | Cai, Wei ; Chen, Yaxuan ; Shin, Jee-Eun |
Publisher: |
[S.l.] : SSRN |
Saved in:
freely available
Extent: | 1 Online-Ressource (77 p) |
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Type of publication: | Book / Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Notes: | Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments May 8, 2023 erstellt |
Other identifiers: | 10.2139/ssrn.4447583 [DOI] |
Source: | ECONIS - Online Catalogue of the ZBW |
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014356745
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