Spreading and Shifting Costs of Lateral Control Among Peers: A Structural Analysis at the Individual Level

This paper uses three-way and sociometric data to reconstitute individual conceptions of peer-driven intervention for the protection of common resources in a collegial organization, a Northeastern corporate law firm. Variations in partners' individual conceptions are explained in terms of management of costs of lateral control. Costs of control are mainly expressed as costs to members in terms of social capital. Management of such costs includes spreading or concentrating them among partners, shifting them to others or bearing them oneself, and using similarities among others to smooth the control process among peers. Leverage styles are identified. They tend to combine various ways of spreading and shifting such costs, and characterize three levels of seniority. Seniority appears to be a key variable for a theory of unobtrusive protection of common resources among peers.