Gender variation in the antecedents of task advice network size: Organizational tenure and core self-evaluations

•In general, women have larger task advice networks than men.•Core self-evaluations are more strongly related to task advice network size for men than women.•Organizational tenure was associated with larger task advice networks among women.•Organizational tenure was associated with smaller task advice networks among men.

Research finds gender differences in the size, quality, and consequences of social networks in the workplace. Building on these studies, we focus on one type of social network: task advice networks, which we define as the networks that act as conduits for information and knowledge directly related to work task completion. Using data on over 1300 employees, we test the relationships between task advice network size and two variables – organizational tenure and core self-evaluations, examining differences by gender. We find a larger positive association between core self-evaluations and task advice network size for men than for women. Additionally, we find that men, but not women, have larger networks when lower in tenure.