Empirical Verification of Different Rank Dynamic Roles in Informal Hierarchies

Abstract

Organizations today face a more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous market environment, referred to by the term »VUCA world«. To this, they commonly respond with management approaches that comprise flat hierarchies and a decentrali¬za¬tion of decision-making structures. But while some companies are very successful with such approaches, others struggle significantly. One reason is that conflicts about ranks in the informal hierarchy arise as the formal hierarchy diminishes. Hence, understanding group dynamics and the different strategies of team members in the social competition becomes increasingly important. In previous works, a theoretical model containing five different roles was presented. These roles result from specific psychological capabilities, values, and needs of each individual and include specific contributions to the social functioning of the group. In this paper, participants of an online survey have been asked about their contribution to team success. A subsequent factor analysis of n = 421 datasets proofed the existence of five different roles and, thus, the validity of the model.