Choosing work group members: Balancing similarity, competence, and familiarity

This study explores one of the contributors to group composition-the basis on which people choose others with whom they want to work. We use a combine d model to explore individual attributes, relational attributes, and previo us structural ties as determinants of work partner choice. Four years of da ta from participants in 33 small project groups were collected, some of whi ch reflects individual participant characteristics and some of which is soc ial network data measuring the previous relationship between two participan ts, Our results suggest that when selecting future group members people are biased toward others of the same race, others who have a reputation for be ing competent and hard working, and others with whom they have developed st rong working relationships in the past. These results suggest that people s trive for predictability when choosing future work group members. (C) 2000 Academic Press.