Network-Related Personality and the Agency Question: Multi-Role Evidence from a Virtual World

Speaker
Ron Burt
Hobart W. Williams Professor of Sociology and Strategy, University of Chicago

When
-

Where
Baker Hall 136A (Adamson Wing)

Description

A multi-role network is the collection of a person’s role-specific networks. Consistency across the role-specific networks reveals the person’s network-relevant personality, a recurring network style, she brings to the roles she plays. The more consistent the networks a person builds in his roles, and the more important that consistency is for the person’s achievements, the more important agency is for understanding achievement. Using network, experience and achievement data on seven thousand people each playing two or more of twenty-five thousand characters in a virtual world, evidence is presented to support two conclusions: (1) About a third of role-specific network variance is consistent within people across roles. In other words, people who build a closed network in one role are likely to build a closed network in other roles. People who build in one role a network rich in access to structural holes, are likely to do the same in other roles. (2) The network consistent across a person’s roles contributes almost nothing to predicting achievement. Achievement in a role is determined by a person’s experience in the role and the person’s role-specific network (about 90% of predicted achievement variance). The two conclusions are robust across substantively significant differences in the mix of roles combined in a multi-role network (too many roles, difficult combination of roles, or roles played to overlapping audiences). In sum, network-relevant personality across the roles they play, but their achievement in a specific role depends on experience in the specific roles, and the network they build in the role.

Speaker's Bio

Ronald S. Burt is the Hobart W. Williams Professor of Sociology and Strategy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His work concerns the social structure of competitive advantage (e.g., Neighbor Networks, 2010, Oxford University Press).

Speaker's Website
http://www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/b/ronald-s-burt

Host
Sara Kiesler