Executives’ network change and their promotability during a merger

We investigate whether changes to cross-functional or cross-organizational personal networks following a large corporate merger and acquisition improve junior executives’ career outcomes. Previous research on networks and career success has focused on stable organizational environments, finding that large, open networks with many structural holes are most advantageous because of superior information benefits and control power, while closed networks provide redundant information that is unhelpful career-wise. However, we suggest that while dense, closed networks formed within organizational boundaries might be detrimental to executives’ future promotability, closed networks are helpful if they are created across boundaries. These ties help to facilitate knowledge transfer and develop a new superordinate post-merger identity and are ultimately valued by the organization. We tested this on junior executives’ email network data collected at two time points (pre-merger and a year later) from the newly-merged o...