{"id":4450,"date":"2025-05-08T17:24:46","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T17:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=4450"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:40:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:40:54","slug":"avoid-disruptions-when-hiring-downsizing-and-promoting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/avoid-disruptions-when-hiring-downsizing-and-promoting\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoid Disruptions When Hiring, Downsizing, and Promoting"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Adding or subtracting people from a team or department\u2014or promoting someone within it\u2014can enhance or detract from chemistry among colleagues, the effectiveness of teamwork, and the cohesiveness of organizational networks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Jessica Methot<\/a> of Rutgers University and the University of Exeter\u2014who cowrote an Academy of Management Review article<\/a><\/em> on this topic with Emily Rosado-Solomon<\/a> of Babson College and David Allen<\/a> of Texas Christian University and University of Warwick\u2014said that the ways that organizations function aren\u2019t solely based on people\u2019s skills.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cOur employees are connected to each other and they aren\u2019t only using their own knowledge and skills to get their work done; they\u2019re also relying on others,\u201d Methot said. \u201cThey go to others for feedback, advice, guidance, information, or mentorship, and they\u2019re using that, leveraging that information to do better, to do their work better.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cWorking to understand what HR policies are going to impact those connections and those relationships between people will help us better understand how they then perform in their job,\u201d she said. \u201cDiving in a little more deeply also leads to understanding how some of these HR practices and decisions that organizations are making can break up those networks and disrupt those relationships.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cOn the one hand, they can help their formation, but on the other hand, they can really mess things up.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Managers who can better understand how different types of HR practices might change employees\u2019 sense of how they interact with others are more effective. Employees who are aware of various organizational networks can focus their networking and relationship-building efforts more productively.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cPeople\u2019s definition of their role, how they interact with other people, who they report to, and who are on their team get disrupted when different HR practices move those individuals to another team or department or a different role with more responsibilities,\u201d Methot said. \u201cLet\u2019s say they make a promotion decision\u2014I\u2019ve been working with someone on a team; we have a really great working relationship.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also friends; we trust each other, and then that person gets promoted and a new person gets put in their place,\u201d she said. \u201cI now have to build a whole new identity for how I relate to this new person, and that takes a lot of mental effort to rebuild this relational identity, this way of interacting with other people with whom we work.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A sample of Methot\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n