From reading to coordinating: How teams' ability in reading status hierarchies helps status conflict avoidance and team performance

We draw upon the large body of research on social hierarchy in examining the existence of a new individual ability factor, 'status acuity (SA)', and its team-level implications. Across three studies, we find that individuals vary in their ability to accurately perceive the informal status hierarchies of social groups, and that this is distinct from established dimensions of human intelligence, social abilities, and personality traits. Furthermore, SA at the team level predicts intra-team status conflict and team performance. This research contributes to our understanding of human ability, social hierarchy, the determinants of team effectiveness.