Geography and power in an organizational forum: Evidence from the U.S. Senate Chamber

We examine the role that geography plays in structuring interactions within an organizational setting designed to promote broad patterns of interaction: the organizational forum. We propose that, within a forum, an individual's location structures his or her access to peer support, but individuals with power (i.e., those who control the flow of organizational resources) can transcend these geographic constraints. We examine these propositions with data collected on strategic actors in the U.S. Senate Chamber. Using a dyad fixed effects approach, time-varying controls, selection-on-observables estimation, and quasi-exogenous shocks to seating arrangements, we find support for our propositions. These results contribute to our understanding of strategic interaction patterns, with an emphasis on the geographic scaffold upon which strategic actions are constructed.