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We argue and find that negative ties are not always liabilities to workplace performance. Instead, negative ties can be beneficial depending on how socially distant they are from the person (i.e., whether they are direct or indirect negative ties), and how those ties are embedded with other ties. Results from a field study at a large life sciences company show that an employee's number of direct negative ties is related to poorer performance, as rated by that individual's supervisor. However, indirect negative ties can either be beneficial or liabilities to performance, depending on whether they are embedded in "open" or "closed" triadic structures.

Although there is some evidence individuals' knowledge of the organization's social network can be a valuable resource, providing advantages, it is unclear whether those advantages also relate to employee performance outcomes, such as career advancement. Thus, the question this study seeks to answer is "Does accuracy of the social network provide a unique resource unto itself, positively affecting one's promotion in the organization?" This question is answered from a social exchange and social resources view using cognitive social structure-style data collected in the call center of a large U.S. restaurant equipment manufacturing firm. Evidence suggests that social network accuracy of the work-related trust and distrust networks increased the chances for promotion compared with the less accurate. In addition, trust and distrust network accuracy moderated supervisor-rated performance effects on promotion, such that accuracy is generally more beneficial for low compared with high performance individuals, increasing their chances of promotion. Contributions to research in career advancement, social networks, network cognition, and positive and negative tie perception are discussed.

The upheaval created by a merger can precipitate voluntary employee turnover, causing merging organizations to lose valuable knowledge-based resources and competencies precisely when they are needed most to achieve the merger’s integration goals. While prior research has shown that employees’ connections to coworkers reduce their likelihood of leaving, we know little about how personal social networks should change to increase the likelihood of staying through the disruptive post-merger integration period. In a pre–post study of social network change, we investigate over 15 million email communications between employees within two large merging consumer goods firms over 2 years. We use insights from network activation theory to posit and find that employees with high formal power (rank) and high informal status (indegree centrality) react to the merger’s general uncertainty and threat by developing new social connections in a manner indicative of a network widening response: reaching out and connecting with those in the counterpart legacy organization. We also investigate whether increased personally felt threat in the form of merger-related job insecurity strengthens these relationships, finding it does in the case of high formal power. We also find that employees increasing their cross-legacy social connections is key in reducing those employees’ turnover after a merger. Our study suggests that network activation theory can be extended to explain network changes and not simply network cognition.