Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks

Organizations are embedded in multiple interdependent networks comprising different types of relationships, which are managed by different functional units inside each organization. The authors define tie transfer across networks as the influence of relationships in one network on relationships in another. The authors argue that the probability of tie transfer will depend on the differences in context in which relationships are formed in two networks, on the past dynamics of relationships in a network into which the tie transfer takes place and on the relative salience of different networks. This paper develops these conjectures into a relational multiplexity perspective.