Exploring the Impact of Formal and Informal Network Consistency on Job Performance in Hypertension Management Teams: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background Integrated care is essential for managing noncommunicable diseases, with cross-organizational and multidisciplinary collaboration playing a key role. However, while structural and functional integration in healthcare have been widely studied, the impact of process-level and interpersonal integration remains underexplored. This study applies social network analysis to examine how the overlap between formal and informal networks influences the job performance of hypertension management personnel. Using China’s primary care–based hypertension management model as a case, we explore how network congruence shapes team effectiveness in a multidisciplinary, cross-organizational setting. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey of hypertension management personnel from nine community health service centers in Hangzhou, China, between September 25 and October 25, 2023. A total of 436 questionnaires were distributed, and 401 valid responses were obtained. The survey included validated instruments to measure formal networks and informal networks. Work performance was assessed across four dimensions: task, relational, learning, and innovation. Network consistency was calculated based on the overlap between formal and informal networks. Data were analyzed using correlation analysis and multilevel linear regression analysis, controlling for network size and demographics (gender, age, work experience, education). Results Correlation analysis revealed significant relationships between formal and informal networks, with network consistency influencing overall performance. Specifically, the consistency between the reciprocal workflow network and the advice network positively influences hypertension management personnel’s overall work performance, learning performance, and innovation performance. In contrast, the consistency between the reciprocal workflow network and the friendship network negatively influences overall work performance and innovation performance among hypertension management personnel. Finally, the consistency between the sequential workflow network and the advice network negatively influences hypertension management personnel’s overall work performance. Conclusions Our findings elucidate how interactions between formal and informal networks affect job performance, offer a new perspective for improving the performance of hypertension management team members, and enriche and expands the substantive scope of research on human resources for health management.