| This dissertation takes on an ecological approach to exploring the intricacies of organizational life; namely how employees make sense of a changing environment via mechanisms of social influence. A multi-theoretic, multi-level, multi-method agenda is employed in delineating how organizational members influence each others’ attitudes when technological innovation is changing the work environment. A dialectical paradox is explored, suggesting that attitudes may reflect larger social dynamics at play: If groups differentiate along functional contributions to the system at large, and if the organization treats these groups differently (creating more social and physical distance between some less foregrounded groups), the relative status of a group will be reflected in the degree to which ensuing attitudes align with the organization at large. Focus groups, informal interviews, surveys and network analytic techniques are all integrated in order to capture the intricacies of organizational layers—employees situated in groups and groups situated in an intergroup landscape. Employees’ personal experiences (micro-level factors such as degree of identification, perceptions of peer source influence, frequency of communication, etc.) as well as more macro-level variables (such as spatial, positional and relational proximity to influence; degree of organizational markedness) are explored throughout. Findings from four data-driven chapters are ultimately synthesized into a model of social influence in differentiated groups. This model captures describes social influence as situated in individual (previous experience), dyadic (communication with peers), group (function), and systemic (degree of markedness) contexts; layers that are as interdependent as the actors themselves. |
