2001/09/01 by Edward J. Lawler · 1,232 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Affect (linguistics) #Cohesion (chemistry) #Communication #Economics #Feeling #Interpersonal ties #Management #Management and Organizational Studies #Political science #Positive economics #Psychology #Social Power and Status Dynamics #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social exchange theory #Social psychology #Solidarity #Task (project management)
paper · doi:10.1086/324071
published in American Journal of Sociology 107(2), 321-352 (University of Chicago Press)
openalex publication_date 2001/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
This article develops a theory that explains how and when emotions, produced by social exchange, generate stronger or weaker ties to relations, groups, or networks. It is argued that social exchange produces positive or negative global feelings, which are internally rewarding or punishing. The theory indicates that social units (relations, groups, networks) are perceived as a source of these feelings, contingent on the degree of jointness in the exchange task. The jointness of the task is greatest if (1) actors find it difficult to distinguish their individual effects on or contributions to solving the exchange task (nonseparability) and (2) actors perceive a shared responsibility for success or failure at the exchange task. The theory explicates the effects of different exchange structures on these conditions and, in turn, on cohesion and solidarity. Implications are developed for network‐to‐group transformations.