The impact of affective relationships and awareness on expertise retrieval: A multilevel network perspective on transactive memory theory

Abstract

Taking a multilevel, network perspective to transactive memory theory, this study explored how positive and negative affective relationships, in addition to awareness, influence expertise retrieval in work groups. Specifically, a three-level model was proposed in which the impact of affective ties and awareness on expertise retriev l was examined and tested at dyadic, individual and group levels simultaneously. Hypotheses were tested using network data collected from 693 employees in 53 sales teams in a multinational IT-service organization. The results from HLM analysis supported our hypotheses that both positive and negative affective ties influence expertise retrieval in additional to awareness of expertise distribution, although their impacts occurred at different levels of analysis. The paper ends with a general discussion of the benefits of integrating social network and multilevel perspectives in studying transactive memory.