Direct and indirect negative ties and individual performance

We argue and find that negative ties are not always liabilities to workplace performance. Instead, negative ties can be beneficial depending on how socially distant they are from the person (i.e., whether they are direct or indirect negative ties), and how those ties are embedded with other ties. Results from a field study at a large life sciences company show that an employee's number of direct negative ties is related to poorer performance, as rated by that individual's supervisor. However, indirect negative ties can either be beneficial or liabilities to performance, depending on whether they are embedded in “open” or “closed” triadic structures.