Knowing Where Others Stand: Accuracy and Performance Effects of Individuals’ Perceived Status Hierarchies

Abstract：

Status hierarchies are perhaps the single most important form of social structure within groups, ubiquitous and affecting groups’ information flow, decision-making, and performance as well as the behavior and outcomes of individual members. The extent to which individuals are able to accurately perceive and navigate their groups’ status hierarchies may thus be a critical determinant of their success. Research to date, however, has largely overlooked the role of individuals’ perceptions of status hierarchies. We introduce the concept of perceived status hierarchies, or individuals’ mental representations of their groups’ status hierarchies. Across four field studies, involving students in university cohorts and working adults, we find substantial variance in individuals’ perceived status hierarchies, and that individuals with more accurate perceptions exhibit higher performance. Analyses of individuals’ networking behavior reveals that individuals with more accurate perceived status hierarchies have contact with higher status others on average, which mediates the positive association between accuracy and performance. This work makes important contributions by extending existing theories of status, connecting the literatures on status and social networks, and providing a comprehensive test of the consequences of accurate perceptions of social structure for individual networking behavior and performance outcomes.

Speaker Biography： 

Siyu Yu is a doctoral candidate in Management from Stern School of Business, New York University. Her research focuses on the micro-foundations of groups and teams, with a particular focus on organizational structures, social networks, and intra-group processes. Specifically, Siyu examines how individuals’ perceptions of hierarchy affect their performance outcomes, behaviors, and decision-making at work, as well as the group-level consequences and cultural variations of hierarchy perceptions. Siyu is also interested in various antecedents of conflict and competition in group processes. In carrying out her research, Siyu employs a variety of methods, including field, laboratory, and archival studies. Prior to Stern, Siyu received double Bachelor degrees in Economics and Sociology from Peking University and a Master degree in Sociology from University of California, Berkeley.