Closure vs. structural holes: how social network information and culture affect choice of collaborators

Authors:
Ge Gao;Pamela Hinds;Chen Zhao
Affiliations:
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA;Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA;Microsoft, Redmond, Washington, USA
Venue:
Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative work
Year:
2013

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Abstract

Collaboration is important to successful organizations and how coworkers are selected is crucial to the dynamics of effective collaborations. In this study we explore how people use social network information, which is increasingly accessible on enterprise systems in organizations, to choose people with whom to collaborate. We conducted a scenario-based study of 459 respondents in a global high-tech company. Our data indicate cultural differences in how social network information was valued when choosing a collaborator. The Chinese, consistent with the cultural value of Guanxi, more closely followed a closure model, whereas Americans favored neither a closure nor a structural holes model. These results provide new insights into how needs for social network information may vary between cultures and how social networking sites might support workers in choosing collaborators from within and across national cultures.