Salience of hierarchy
- When could the positive psychological effects of social hierarchy (e.g. motivation and cognitive conservation) be outweighed by its darker repercussions (e.g. negative affect and stress)?
- Do individuals hold some social hierarchies (in work or non-work domains) more salient than others – i.e. are individuals more attuned to their social power, status, influencing capacity and upward mobility in some hierarchies as compared to others
- What personal characteristics, situational factors, stereotypes and cultural contexts predict salience of hierarchy?
- Does hierarchy salience, besides socio-structural perceptions (perceived legitimacy, stability and permeability), determine whether power and status seekers tolerate or protest against the established system?
Status gain and loss
- How does loss of status in one hierarchy affect actor’s ranks in other status hierarchies, and how differential is this effect is for high- and low-status actors?
- Do some actors intentionally keep a low profile in select contexts to avoid pressures of performance expectations?
- How do actors deal with self-perceptions of status varying across contexts (e.g. within and outside work domains) and over time within the same context (e.g. after a status loss in a workgroup? What determines such behavioural plasticity across status hierarchies?
- How do status hierarchy dynamics unfold with a newcomer’s entry, especially into groups with “too many stars”?
Social construction of justice
- Do higher and lower social power of an influencer differentially affect the fairness perceptions in the target?
- How do formal influence (i.e. exerted by those with legitimate power) and less formal influence (i.e. lateral influences by peers and upward influences by subordinates) affect the various dimensions of justice?
- Do hierarchical ranks of social actors predict their tendencies to adhere to or violate justice rules?
- Do those higher up in an organization draw greater scrutiny of fairness and stringency of judgments of their actions by both internal and external stakeholders?
Justice, trust and social influence
- Does interpersonal trust explain the relationship between justice and social influence?
- What justice dimensions affect the perception of trustworthiness, and how does this perception in turn predict dyadic trust, deference and social influence?
- Are some individuals (so called “Shane Battiers”) and dyads at the structural core of trust relationships in teams?
- Are the determinants and processes of leader-based and coworker-based trusts distinct?
Emotions and social influence
- How do specific emotions associated with power and status affect appraisal process and thereby predict phenomena such as justice, commitment and conflict that are central to organizations?
- What mechanisms determine the effectiveness of emotional displays and affect infusion tactics in influencing targets?
- Does perceived illegitimacy of rank order in a group effect different type and intensity of emotions in members depending on the salience of social hierarchy to self?
Group composition and conflict
- How do actual and perceived diversity (based on characteristics such as traits, demographics, opinions and abilities) result in and are results of conflicts?
- How do power and status struggles manifest as task, process or relationship conflicts in small groups?