Keep Them Apart or Join Them Together? How Identification Processes Shape Orientations to Network Brokerage

Abstract

This article investigates how the targets with which brokers identify shape the orientation with which they approach their network position. Brokers are often thought of as exhibiting a tertius gaudens orientation toward their network position through their efforts to keep disconnected groups apart, thereby maintaining their ability to control the flow of information between the groups. However, brokers may also exhibit a tertius iungens orientation if they make decisions to join disconnected groups together, bridging structural holes and enabling information to flow freely between them. Drawing on data from an in-depth field study, this article shows that when brokers identify with their community of practice or their profession, they are more likely to exhibit a tertius iungens orientation than when brokers identify with personal or workgroup targets. The qualitative data suggest that this relationship between identification with targets and brokerage orientation was guided by the rules and resources of the identities they enacted. The targets with which brokers identified shaped how they took perspectives in their work and the flexibility with which they enacted their role, which in turn shaped their decisions about whether to join people together or to keep them apart.