Management Behaviour as Social Capital: A Systematic Analysis of Organizational Ethnographies

This article explores managerial behaviour as a potential source of social capital in the workplace. Using content‐coded data from the full population of organizational ethnographies (N = 204), we explore facets of workplace behaviours and relations that have been difficult to evaluate using survey‐based techniques. Analysing ethnographic‐based data with multivariate techniques, we find that competent management leadership, in particular, has widespread and significant effects on important workplace outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behaviour, and co‐worker infighting. The findings highlight the value of cross‐methods techniques for evaluating and extending existing workplace theories.