Context and sex effects on personal work networks

This study tests hypotheses concerning the similarities and differences bet ween men's and women's instrumental, expressive and overlapping work networ ks. The study's sample was drawn from three organizations representing dist inctly different industries. As expected, women and men differed in several structural characteristics of their expressive networks but, with the exce ption of homophily (i.e. the number of same-sex ties), their instrumental w ork networks were essentially similar. In addition, there were systematic d ifferences among the work networks of participants employed by the three or ganizations. The results support the general proposition that both structur al differences and sex influence the patterns of people's networks in the w orkplace, but that a distinction must be made between individual's instrume ntal and expressive networks. Implications for future research, through the integration of our findings with other researchers, are addressed in the d iscussion.