Martin’s work focuses on social networks in organizations and includes the co-authored books Social Networks and Organizations (Sage, 2003); and Interpersonal Networks in Organizations: Cognition, Personality, Dynamics and Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2008). 

Martin’s most recent work includes the following three articles. The first examines the personality profiles of people who broker between cliques in organizations (Academy of Management Journal, 2018). The second examines the paradox of people who feel powerful enough to engage in brokerage activities but whose sense of power blinds them to the brokerage opportunities that are available (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2018). The third paper examines how agency has been used in organizational social networks (Academy of Management Annals, 2021).

Other recent research includes an examination of how people get ahead and are subsequently disadvantaged through ties to high-reputation leaders. The research examines coaches’ careers in the National Football League (NFL) over a 31 year period. (Magnification and correction of the acolyte effect: Initial benefits and ex post settling up in NFL coaching careers, 2016, Academy of Management Journal.) 

In the area of social networks and personality, a team of researchers, including fellow UCL academic Blaine Landis, conducted a meta-analysis across 138 network studies. The analysis shows that the self-monitoring personality variable (compared to the Big Five) is crucially important in understanding who emerges as central in organizational networks; and that indegree centrality (i.e., how many other people claim you as a friend or as someone who gives them advice) is more important than brokerage in understanding career outcomes. (“Integrating personality and social networks: A meta-analysis of personality, network position, and work outcomes in organizations,” 2015 in Organization Science.)

These topics – the cognitive and personality foundations of organizational social networks – are reviewed theoretically in two recent conceptual articles, one in Journal of Management (“The micro foundations of organizational social networks: A review and an agenda for future research,” 2015, co-authored with Stefano Tasselli and Jochen Menges); and the other published in Annual Review of Psychology (“Social network analysis: Foundations and frontiers on advantage,” co-authored with Ronald S. Burt and Stefano Tasselli, 2013).

For more on martin’s research see the departmental website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/msi/profile/martin-kilduff/research