Bridging in network organisations. The case of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the relational architecture of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focussing on the individuals that, in the thirty years of its existence, have assured the connection between its different components. To study relational bridging within the IPCC, we created a unique database of all the individuals who have contributed to the organisation since its establishment and noted in which workstream they participated (i.e., function + Working Group + Assessment Report). From this database we extract the participants-workstreams affiliation network and use it to compute several metrics of bridgeness, which we discuss, validate, and compare. We use these metrics to investigate the general distribution and evolution of bridging in the IPCC, but also to identify individuals who more actively provided connections between its authors and government representatives (functional bridges), its Working Groups (thematic bridges) and its assessment cycles (temporal bridges). Focussing on the role of key bridge individuals and their trajectories within the organisation, we provide insights on the IPCC as a network organisation.