The Asymmetric Nature of Social Hierarchies: Unpacking the Dynamic Relationship Between Power and Status

Scholars and practitioners alike have long presumed that power and status, two foundational bases of social hierarchy, share a symmetric, mutually reinforcing relationship. However, support for this presumption has largely taken the form of theoretical accounts due to the prevalence of static research designs and a dearth of dynamic methodology in organizational research. Drawing on the Dual Perspective Model, we propose that one’s status is more likely to drive changes in one’s power than vice versa because status has a stronger connection to communion—an important component of interpersonal evaluations—than does power, and communality is an important predictor of both power and status. Using data from two studies involving project teams and a contemporary methodology from developmental psychology for modeling dynamic relationships (bivariate dual change score models), we illustrate that there is indeed a mutually reinforcing relationship between power and status over time, but this relationship is asymmetric. In three additional experiments, we find that perceptions of communality explain this asymmetry. We also find similar effects whether power is formal—attached to a position or role—or involves control over informal resources. Across all studies, we find that the path from status to changes in power is stronger than the path from power to changes in status.