사회적 관계와 협조적 행동 : 집단 및 조직 수준의 관계특성을 통한 다층적 분석

Cooperative behaviors have been studied as one of the major topics in economics, sociology, and social psychology. Organizational researchers have also recognized that cooperative behaviors are crucial to the success of organizations. In spite of the lack of consensus on a definition of cooperation, cooperative behaviors in organizations can be broadly defined as organizational members’ willingness to help or work with others, even when it is neither formally demanded nor rewarded. 37 Despite the increasing interests in cooperative behaviors in organizational research, most previous works have focused on individual attributes such as personalities, work attitudes, and impression management motives as the antecedents of cooperative behaviors. However, an individual’s behaviors are seldom driven exclusively by his or her individual characteristics(e.g., personal disposition or attitudes). Individual actors in organizations are embedded in social relationships with others, and individual behaviors including cooperative behaviors are also influenced by others in organizations. Recently, several studies have suggested the importance of contextual factors, especially social network characteristics for explaining individual cooperative behaviors. However, few studies have examined the effects of different levels of social relationships on cooperative behaviors in organizations. Interpersonal relationships with other people at different levels of organizations(e.g., group- and organization-level) can have different impacts on members’ cooperative behaviors. In this study, we explored two research questions about the relationships between individual actors’ social relationships and their cooperative behaviors at different levels in organizations : (1) How an individual’s network characteristics will influence that person’s interpersonal cooperative behaviors?; (2) How an individual’s network characteristics at different levels in organizations will have different effects on that person’s interpersonal cooperative behaviors? Many studies on cooperative behaviors have drawn on social exchange theory as the basis for predicting cooperative behaviors. In organizational life, people are embedded in multiple relationships not only in groups to which they belong but also in overall organization. Those individuals develop exchange relationships with their group members and other coworkers outside their immediate groups. Thus, we expect that members’ cooperative behaviors will be affected by their network characteristics derived from their different social relationships at different levels in organizations. In this study, we focus on an individual’s network centrality and multiplexity as the relational antecedents of that person’s cooperative behaviors. Individuals occupying central positions in the networks tend to be more prestigious and powerful, and can easily access useful information and resources. It makes more central individuals potentially more available for help requests from other people. Moreover, previous studies have suggested that central individuals are more likely to perceive their roles more broadly (Brass, 1981) and are more sensitive to opportunities for interpersonal cooperative behaviors (Venkataramani & Dalal, 2007). The extent of network embeddedness also provides a context for an individual’s cooperative behaviors. If some coworkers in organizations are also friends for social gatherings after work, they are involved in multiple domains together, and connected in both emotional and instrumental exchanges through multiplex ties. In multiplex relationships among individuals, one’s behavior in one context also affects that person’s behaviors in another context. As a result, multiplex relations tend to constrain the individual’s behaviors. Previous researches also maintain that embedded social structure encourages the emergence of norms and the establishment of trustworthiness (Granovetter, 1985; Coleman, 1988). Thus, individuals with greater multiplex ties are more embedded in networks of relationships with other coworkers, and thereby are more likely to cooperate with other people. Furthermore, we explore the different effects of an individual’s structural characteristics at different levels of networks in organizations on that person’s cooperative behaviors. For the members in organizations, the most prominent social context is their immediate work groups because individuals tend to have more frequent interactions with other groups members, work more interdependently for common tasks, and are more affected by stronger norms developed in more closed networks. Thus, we expect that an individual’s group-level network characteristics rather than organization-level network characteristics have more significant effect on that person’s interpersonal cooperative behaviors. In summary, we suggested two hypotheses. First, an individual’s centrality in friendship network will be positively related to that person’s interpersonal cooperative behaviors. This relationship appears more clearly in group-level network than in organization-level network. Second, an individual’s multiplexity in friendship network will be positively related to that person’s interpersonal cooperative behaviors. This relationship appears more clearly in group-level social relationship than in organization-level social relationship. To investigate these hypotheses, we used a data of 284 employees from 11 Korean companies. We divided friendship network and multiple social relationships into group-level and organization-level. Using network survey questionnaire, we asked respondents about their social relationships with every members in the same group and network ties with people in the same organization but outside the respondent’s group respectively to measure network characteristics at different levels. In-degree centrality in friendship network is calculated by counting the number of direct links to a focal actor nominated by other respondents. An employee with many contacts may be perceived by others as central. For measuring multiplexity, we asked multiple social relationships(i. e., friendship, ex-group members, cohorts, going to the same school, co-member of social clubs within/outside the organization), and counted the overlapped relationships, and then divided by the total possible number of relationships. We measured cooperative behaviors using OCBI and altruism measure, and collected individuals’ cooperative behaviors by immediate supervisor’s ratings to avoid common method bias. We controlled company size/age/industry, gender, tenure, affective organizational commitment, and group cohesiveness. Results of analyses supported hypotheses as follows : (1) Individuals who are more central and have more multiplexity ties show more cooperative behavior to their peer employees. We also found that group-level social relationships were significant for predicting an individual’s cooperative behaviors whereas the effects of organization-level social relationships were not significant. We confirmed these results even controlling for group-level and organization-level characteristics, and organization commitment. In this study, we explored a multi-level analysis of social relationship and cooperative behaviors. Consistent with the recent studies focusing on the contextual characteristics for explaining cooperative behaviors in organizations, we showed that an individual actor’s structural network characteristics, specifically centrality and multiplexity, predicted that person’s cooperative behaviors. We believe this study can add some values to the growing body of research on a multi-level relationship and cooperative behaviors. Recent studies suggest that cooperative behaviors in organizations are inherently multi-level, so that a better understanding of cooperative behaviors within organizations requires consideration of multiple levels of analysis. Following the suggestions of this stream of research, we examined the different structural effects from multiple levels of networks(i. e., group-level and organization-level) and found that an individual’s cooperative behaviors were more facilitated by their immediate group-level network characteristics rather than their organization-level network characteristics. Several caveats must be considered regarding the findings of current study. We used immediate supervisor’s rating for measuring an individual’s cooperative behaviors. Although in this study, common method bias was rarely a problem due to different sources for the social network and cooperative behavior data, future research may include both peer- and supervisor-evaluations of cooperative behaviors for a better understanding of the network impacts on cooperative behaviors. Furthermore, if future researches consider more group and organizational context constructs such as group cohesion and organizational culture as the possible moderating and mediating variables, we can have more comprehensive theoretical models of the multi-level relationships between network characteristics and cooperation in organizations. We believe that although many works still remain, this paper provides a step forward in enhancing our understanding of multi-level social relationships and cooperative behaviors.