Recognizing and Utilizing Expertise in Work Groups: A Status Characteristics Perspective
基于地位特征理论，研究了工作群体中成员如何通过特定和弥散的地位线索识别专业知识，并发现这种识别在分散、长期团队中更依赖特定线索，在集中、短期团队中更依赖弥散线索，且专业知识识别完全中介了地位线索与群体内影响力的关系。
This paper develops and tests a theory of expertise recognition and utilization in groups that focuses on the critical role of members' status cues as indicators of task expertise. The theory draws on status characteristics theory and past research on groups to propose that while attributions of expertise in work groups will be informed by both specific (i.e., task-relevant) and diffuse (i.e., social category) status cues, the strength of this association will be contingent on the type of cue as well as on characteristics of the group context. So, whereas specific status cues will better predict attributions of expertise in decentralized, longer-tenured groups, diffuse status cues will better predict attributions of expertise in centralized, shorter-tenured groups. Further, attributions of expertise should fully mediate the relationship between members' status cues and intragroup influence. A multilevel test of these hypotheses in a sample of self-managed production teams in a Fortune 100 high-technology firm provides strong support. Group-level analyses confirm that the alignment of intragroup influence with specific status cues is positively associated with group performance.