Center for Culture, Organizations and Politics - Previously Affiliated

In my dissertation, I analyze the role of social networks on worker’s post-hire outcomes in a large retail bank in the United States. More specifically, I am exploring the precise theoretical mechanisms by which a common organization practice ¾the hiring of new workers via employee referrals— shapes employees’ productivity. I argue that social networks not only play an important role in the hiring of employees but also have important effects on post-hire job outcomes which have not been satisfactorily examined. Thus, I seek to deepen our understanding of social ties as a social process that might make employee referrals perform better at work than non-referral hires, other things being equal. I also investigate the level of interdependence among the post-hire attachment and performance of referred employees.

For the first time in this line of empirical research, I present a model of employee performance correcting for the turnover of hires within organizations. I show the extent to which turnover can be good (or bad) for organizations. If poor performers are found to leave and good performers stay, then turnover is clearly good for employers. The model will also provide a better understanding about the nature of performance linkages and career interdependencies. If high-productivity employees stay in the organization and keep good employees, then social relations at work are beneficial for the organization. However, the opposite can happen, and high-productivity employees might be leaving an organization and taking their good referrals with them.

To address this puzzle of the post-hire implications of social relations for organizations, I analyze unique and exceptional data on performance of the hires, information about ties among employees, and their demographic characteristics from a large retail banking organization in the United States. I am therefore in a better position than previous studies to sharply identify and test the theoretical mechanisms at work and better approximate the true magnitude of the effects of social ties on employee performance.