Team Ties, Embeddedness, and Turnover Intentions: Integrating Social Networks and Field Theory

Abstract

Although social networks have been examined in teams, an understanding of the consequences of team social network ties on employees’ attitudes beyond team boundaries is hard to come by. Integrating insights from social networks and gestalt field theory, we examine interactive effects of centrality and density of inclusion and exclusion ties in teams on the relationship between employees’ community embeddedness—connectedness with the broader social context—and turnover intentions. In a multi-source field study of 215 employees in 34 teams, we demonstrate that inclusion and exclusion centrality and team exclusion density weaken the effect of community embeddedness on turnover intention.