Dynamics of Social Status

There exists in the literature on social status a
tension between the forces that sort members of a
community into differing social strata and the
forces that constrain membership in relatively
stable status orders. This study conducts a primary
investigation into the manner in which social forces
exert pressures that initially shape and define an
actor s status, but eventually constrain an actor s
movement in a status ordering. The results of
empirical analyses of dyadic relationships within an
open source software community present a vivid
example of social cues at work in establishing both
status mobility and stability. In the process of
status formation, others will tend to evaluate a
focal actor s reputation according to socially
driven cues provided by others. Ironically, these
same social forces eventually produce status
stability. It is argued here that this effect is
largely a product of both uncertainty reduction
(through informational cues) and conformity (through
normative forces).

Autorentext
Received his PhD in Organizational Behavior and MA in Sociology from Stanford University. Currently a professor of management at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington USA.

Klappentext
There exists in the literature on social status a tension between the forces that sort members of a community into differing social strata and the forces that constrain membership in relatively stable status orders. This study conducts a primary investigation into the manner in which social forces exert pressures that initially shape and define an actor's status, but eventually constrain an actor's movement in a status ordering. The results of empirical analyses of dyadic relationships within an open source software community present a vivid example of social cues at work in establishing both status mobility and stability. In the process of status formation, others will tend to evaluate a focal actor's reputation according to socially driven cues provided by others. Ironically, these same social forces eventually produce status stability. It is argued here that this effect is largely a product of both uncertainty reduction (through informational cues) and conformity (through normative forces).