ABSTRACT
Although most social network research in organizations has focused on positive and neutral social relationships between employees and their importance for bringing together individuals and supporting organizational functioning, there has been a growing interest in understanding the origins and effects of negative relationships, such as interpersonal disliking, conflict, avoidance, harming, and undermining in organizations. This chapter provides a review of intra-organizational negative tie research over the past quarter century. First, the tripartite model of interpersonal attitudes is employed to create a typology of negative tie definitions and operationalizations, based on whether they tap into interpersonal affect, behavior, or cognition. In the second part, existing research findings on the antecedents and consequences of negative ties at the individual, dyadic, and group levels are discussed. Finally, the chapter provides suggestions for future research directions on negative ties and signed graphs in organizations.
