WORKS IN PROGRESS

Kang, D., Krause, R., Boukef, N., Charki, M. H., & Mehra, A. Gender and Race Composition within Team and Leadership Networks. Target: Group and Organization Management. (Data analysis complete, Manuscript preparation stage).

• This paper examines how the gender composition of a team influences the network of leadership perceptions, which refers to how team members perceive each other as leaders that emerge in the team. This investigation utilizes survey data collected from university students. By utilizing a network approach and an HLM model, the finding shows a positive relationship between the presence of women in a team and the development of a dense leadership network; and a negative relationship between the presence of East Asians in a team and the development of a centralized leadership network. In addition, men tend to recognize majority-gender counterparts, rather than minority-gender counterparts, as leaders. These findings provide valuable insights into the gender and ethnicity differences in leadership perception.

Kang, D. Cognitive Social Structure Approach to Gender Homophily. Target: Academy of Management Journal. (First data analysis complete, Second data collection stage).

• I examine the assumption that people accurately perceive gender homophily in others’ networks, proposing that perceptions may differ from reality. To address this challenge, I gathered data on perceived friendship networks, which reflect how third parties view the networks of others within a firm. By employing the Cognitive Social Structures (CSS) approach, I found that people overestimate women’s gender homophily but underestimate men’s gender homophily. But there is no gender difference in this network cognition. In addition, Quadratic Assignment Procedure (QAP) results show that female homophily (woman-woman) is more likely to be perceived as present than female heterophily (woman-man), regardless of whether the tie is real or not (i.e., accuracy). However, there was no difference in the perception of a man's friendship ties with another man compared to a woman.

Kang, D. & Mehra, A. Gender and Social Networks in South Korea. Target: Administrative Science Quarterly. (Data analysis stage).

• This paper explores how social networks in workplaces are related to gender in the context of South Korea. Most of what has been learned about gender and workplace social networks has come almost from Western—North American and European—organizations. In this case study, the focus was turned to a country where women, relative to men, are underrepresented at work and are generally perceived as having lower status: South Korea. There are some signs attitudes may be changing in Korea, especially among younger employees, but evidence has been anecdotal. This multi-method case study draws on survey and interview data collected from a Korean firm in the gas industry to address several interrelated questions. This paper investigates the gender differences in access to central positions within friendship networks, the effects of age and rank on the friendship networks of men and women, and the different returns (i.e., supervisory ratings of job performance and self-ratings of job satisfaction and stress) that men and women receive from similar network positions. This study offers a rare glimpse into how gender and age shape access to and returns from friendship networks in a contemporary Korean organization.

Floyd, T., Kang, D., & Mehra, A. (Authors in alphabetical order). Perceived Networks, Perceived Values, and Desired Network Changes. Target: Journal of Applied Psychology. (Pilot study complete; Study design stage).

• This research investigates gender differences in perceived network structures, the perceived value derived from networks, and individuals' desired changes to their networks. A pilot study involving college students revealed two key findings: (1) perceived network reach—defined as the belief that one's friends have many connections—is positively associated with the perceived value of the network, particularly in terms of career benefits, while actual network reach is not; and (2) for women, the perceived value of their network is more strongly related to a desire for network changes, such as engaging in Tertius Iungens behavior (i.e., facilitating connections between unconnected individuals). An experiment is currently in the design phase to further investigate these relationships.

Borgatti, S., Kang, D., Krause, R., & Mehra, A. (Authors in alphabetical order). Social Networks in Healthcare Organizations. (Data collection stage).

REEFEREED JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

Kang, D., Ryu, S., & Lee, S-H. (2019). I Need to be Your Only Friend: The Effect of Salesperson Network Centrality on Opportunistic Behavior. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 39(2), 159-171. (Result of master’s thesis).