Networked roles in organizations
Lecture 1
Role = a set of behavioral expectations attached to a position in an organized set of social
relationships
Social roles include appropriate and permitted behaviors, guided by social norms. They are
occupied by individuals. When individuals approve of a social role, they will conform to role
norms and punish those who violate role norms.
Agents (employees) conform the role expectations because of the anticipation of rewards
and punishments and the satisfaction behaving of a prosocial way.
Changed conditions can render a social role outdated or illegitimate → role change
Roles are often embedded in ‘role sets’
2 perspectives towards roles (van Vuuren)
- Structural-functionalist approach
o roles provide stability and predictability
- interactional approach/symbolic interactionism
o roles may be dynamic
o people may have different understandings of the same occupational role
Structural/functionalist perspective of roles (van Vuuren)
- The script is institutionalized & roles are rather static
- Role expectations are part of the organizations’ ‘collective memory’
- Roles demarcate appropriate and inappropriate behaviors
- Roles disciplines members because of
o Rewards
1
, o Punishments → blacklash effect
- Roles facilitate collaboration because they make
actions predictable
A job consists of behavioral expectations
In-role behavior
Extra-role behavior
Interactional approach
- Roles are more dynamic than the structuralist approach suggests
- No script is available BEFORE the action takes place
- Scripts are not a given and stored in the collective memory, but emerge from
interactions
- Behavioral expectations are subject to social construction and negotiation amongst
role occupants
- Employees improvise and adapt role expectations
- Role making is an ongoing process, a negotiation
- Cf. symbolic interactionism
Roles, image and identity
Roles & identity = the woman looking in the mirror
Roles & Impression management = man looking at the woman
A role is attached to a structural position or occupation. But,
people may provide different meanings to such role.
Role identity = how the individual interprets and makes sense
of the role
Roles also provide the individual with a sense of who one is
Not all roles are equally important
Role identity salience
- In practice, you have many different roles, which may conflict
- In these cases, employees choose between enacting one role or the other
- Roles are ranked in a hierarchy
- Salience is determined by
o The number of role-relationships tied to the role
o The strength and intensity of the relational ties within these role-relationships
Sluss et al
2
, Organizations are an important arena for self-presentation
- Attempts at controlling the images other have of you (Goffman)
- Appearing kind, smart, brutal, intelligent, wealthy etc
Our self-presentation goals are context-specific
- Different audiences, colleagues, friends, your (potential) partner
- Different situations/goals: job interview, Christmas drinks, sales pitch, informal
occasions
Impression formation goals/tactics
Gender
- Besides occupational roles, their behavior is regulated by gender roles
- Guadagno and Cialdini (2007) reviewed literature to figure out the impression
management goals and tactics that men and women employ
- In order to understand gender differences in career progression (i.e. glass ceiling)
- Impression management goals and behaviors that are consistent feminine gender
role expectations might not be successful in helping women to obtain their career
objectives
3
Lecture 1
Role = a set of behavioral expectations attached to a position in an organized set of social
relationships
Social roles include appropriate and permitted behaviors, guided by social norms. They are
occupied by individuals. When individuals approve of a social role, they will conform to role
norms and punish those who violate role norms.
Agents (employees) conform the role expectations because of the anticipation of rewards
and punishments and the satisfaction behaving of a prosocial way.
Changed conditions can render a social role outdated or illegitimate → role change
Roles are often embedded in ‘role sets’
2 perspectives towards roles (van Vuuren)
- Structural-functionalist approach
o roles provide stability and predictability
- interactional approach/symbolic interactionism
o roles may be dynamic
o people may have different understandings of the same occupational role
Structural/functionalist perspective of roles (van Vuuren)
- The script is institutionalized & roles are rather static
- Role expectations are part of the organizations’ ‘collective memory’
- Roles demarcate appropriate and inappropriate behaviors
- Roles disciplines members because of
o Rewards
1
, o Punishments → blacklash effect
- Roles facilitate collaboration because they make
actions predictable
A job consists of behavioral expectations
In-role behavior
Extra-role behavior
Interactional approach
- Roles are more dynamic than the structuralist approach suggests
- No script is available BEFORE the action takes place
- Scripts are not a given and stored in the collective memory, but emerge from
interactions
- Behavioral expectations are subject to social construction and negotiation amongst
role occupants
- Employees improvise and adapt role expectations
- Role making is an ongoing process, a negotiation
- Cf. symbolic interactionism
Roles, image and identity
Roles & identity = the woman looking in the mirror
Roles & Impression management = man looking at the woman
A role is attached to a structural position or occupation. But,
people may provide different meanings to such role.
Role identity = how the individual interprets and makes sense
of the role
Roles also provide the individual with a sense of who one is
Not all roles are equally important
Role identity salience
- In practice, you have many different roles, which may conflict
- In these cases, employees choose between enacting one role or the other
- Roles are ranked in a hierarchy
- Salience is determined by
o The number of role-relationships tied to the role
o The strength and intensity of the relational ties within these role-relationships
Sluss et al
2
, Organizations are an important arena for self-presentation
- Attempts at controlling the images other have of you (Goffman)
- Appearing kind, smart, brutal, intelligent, wealthy etc
Our self-presentation goals are context-specific
- Different audiences, colleagues, friends, your (potential) partner
- Different situations/goals: job interview, Christmas drinks, sales pitch, informal
occasions
Impression formation goals/tactics
Gender
- Besides occupational roles, their behavior is regulated by gender roles
- Guadagno and Cialdini (2007) reviewed literature to figure out the impression
management goals and tactics that men and women employ
- In order to understand gender differences in career progression (i.e. glass ceiling)
- Impression management goals and behaviors that are consistent feminine gender
role expectations might not be successful in helping women to obtain their career
objectives
3
