Estévez José Luis, Takács Károly
Department of Management and Engineering, The Institute for Analytical Sociology, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden.
Department for the Study of Religions, Centre for the Digital Research of Religion, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia.
Front Psychol. 2022 Jul 8;13:815383. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.815383. eCollection 2022.
Brokerage is a central concept in the organization literature. It has been argued that individuals in broker positions-i.e., connecting otherwise disconnected parts within a firm's social network-can control the flow of information. It would imply their increased relevance in workplace gossip. This allegation, however, has not been addressed empirically yet. To fill this gap, we apply social network analysis techniques to relational data from six organizations in Hungary. First, we identify informal groups and individuals in broker positions. Then, we use this information to predict the likelihood with which positive or negative gossip is reported. We find more gossip when the sender and receiver are part of the same group and more positive gossip about in-group rather than out-group targets. Individuals in broker positions are more likely the senders and targets of negative gossip. Finally, even if both the brokers and the boss(es) are the targets of their colleagues' negative gossip, the combination of the two categories (bosses in broker positions) does not predict more negative gossip anymore. Results are discussed in relation to the theoretical accounts on brokerage that emphasize its power for information control but fail to recognize the pitfalls of being in such positions.
经纪作用是组织文献中的一个核心概念。有人认为，处于经纪位置的个体——即在公司社交网络中连接原本不相连部分的人——能够控制信息流。这意味着他们在工作场所流言蜚语中的相关性增加。然而，这一说法尚未得到实证研究的验证。为了填补这一空白，我们将社交网络分析技术应用于来自匈牙利六个组织的关系数据。首先，我们识别处于经纪位置的非正式群体和个体。然后，我们利用这些信息来预测传播正面或负面流言蜚语的可能性。我们发现，当发送者和接收者属于同一群体时，流言蜚语更多，且更多是关于群体内部而非群体外部目标的正面流言蜚语。处于经纪位置的个体更有可能成为负面流言蜚语的发送者和目标。最后，即使经纪人和老板都是同事负面流言蜚语的目标，但这两类人（处于经纪位置的老板）合在一起并不能预测更多的负面流言蜚语。我们结合关于经纪作用的理论阐述来讨论这些结果，这些理论强调其对信息控制的权力，但没有认识到处于这种位置的弊端。
