Zheng, X., Zhao, H. H., Liu, X., & Li, N. (2019).

Network reconfiguration: The implications of

recognizing top performers in teams. 
Journal of Occupational and Organizational
Psychology, 92(4), 825-847.

SABA KHAN
MMS193051
• ABSTRACT
 Social recognition programm is a frequently used
motivational tool in organizations.
It serves two purposes:
 to recognize award recipients’ exceptional performance
 to motivate other employees to work hard for future social
recognition
 when work is interdependent, recognizing just one team
member but not others constitutes a salient social comparison
situation.
 In this study, we introduce a generalized concept of network
reconfiguration.
 In a field experiment, we track dyadic interactions before and
after social recognition of the top performers in teams,and
document substantial changes in teams’ social network
structures during this period of time.
 After conducting tests we find that socially recognizing a top
performer does, in fact, influence network reconfiguration
processes.
 In our study context, the network reconfiguration process takes
place around the top performer, with team members becoming
significantly less connected with him or her.
 We also find a negative impact on team performance for
teams that experience higher levels of network reconfiguration
due to team procedural injustice.
keywords
• Social recognition programm
Social recognition can be defined as an
employee reward and recognition methodology.
Specific tools are used to provide a "communal
forum" where workers of every level can come
together, share their experiences, and assign
rewards to or recognize their peers for their
accomplishments.
• Top performer
someone who will take responsibility for
getting results within the norms of your
company culture.
• Network Reconfiguration
is the process of change in the system of
organaization so that operating costs are
reduced 
Introduction
 Organizations may offer many different types of awards to
their members, such as bonuses, pay raises, contest prizes, and
performance, directing employee efforts in organizations, and
achieving organizational or team goals (Li, Zheng, Harris,Liu,
& Kirkman, 2016; Mosley & Irvine, 2015).
 Compared to monetary recognition, social recognition has a
low cost to organizations, but the value to the award social
recognition, and various combinations of these rewards. Such
awards are essential to boosting employee motivation recipient
can be very high.
 Through its recognition programme, the organization grants
formal approval to the award recipient, who is presented as a
role model to other employees
 Social recognition often comes with titles such as ‘Employee of
the Month’ or ‘Star Employee’
 In recent years, researchers have discovered some unintended
negative effects of social recognition programmes. For example,
when a laundry chain socially recognized employees with high
attendance, it sent a misleading message to employees that
attendance was the only thing that matters.
 This study makes three important contributions
 First, our study clarifies meaningful nuances of social recognition
in teams and highlights the conditions whereby such programmes
may elicit unintended effects.
 Second, we introduce a new concept, network reconfiguration,
which tracks changesinateam’ssocialnetworkovertime
 Third, our study takes a closer, finer-grained microdynamic view
of how contextual changes affect team dynamics.
Theory and hypotheses
• examine network reconfiguration through the lens of social
comparison theory
Hypothesis 1: Recognizing the top performer in teams decreases the
top performer’s teamwork centrality.
(H1 SUPPORTED)
Hypothesis 2: Recognizing the top performer in teams decreases the
team’s overall teamwork density.
(H2 NOT SUPPORTED)
Hypothesis 3: Recognizing the top performer in teams alters indirect
effects from team procedural justice to team performance via
decreases in the top performer’s teamwork centrality.
(Hypothesis 3 SUPPORTED)
Hypothesis 4: Recognizing the top performer in teams alters
indirect effects from team procedural justice to team performance
via decreases in teamwork density
(Hypothesis 4 NOT SUPPORTED)
 Theoretical model.

Implementation
of Social
Recognition
Programmes in
Teams

Team Network Team

Procedural Reconfigura Performance
Justice tion
 Practical implications
• our findings should not be interpreted as suggesting that social
recognition in teams should be abandoned altogether.
• Instead, our research conveys a more nuanced message: Social
recognition in teams can result in mixed and complex effects on
individual and team performance (both positive and negative).
• Thus, organizations should seek ways to maximize the potential
benefits of social recognition and minimize its unwanted side
effects.
• Managers, for example, might enhance perceptions of procedural
justice during the implementation of a social recognition
programme,such as by establishing consistent evaluation
procedures,using accurateand objective performance criteria,and
soliciting employees’input when making decisions.
• If the perceived procedural justice of the programme is high, the
unintended negative effects related to network reconfiguration can
be reduced.
Future recommendation
 In large part due to our efforts to collect data
at three different time points (with team social
network data being collected twice) ,we ended
up with a within-team response rate
(66.1%;rangingfrom52.2%to73.5%)that is
lower than that in many cross-sectional social
network studies. This low response rate, in turn,
could misrepresent the actual team social
network.
Future research develop additional procedures
to collect network data repeatedly and without
compromising response rate concerns.
 Future research work include other network
measures to operationalize network
reconfiguration and to check whether our
findings can be replicated.
 Finally, our study was conducted in a Chinese
manufacturing setting, which may limit the
generalizability of our findings. Further
research might seek to replicate our findings
in another cultural context or another
industry, or examine the impacts of specific
task structure.