The Mind of the Network Broker

33 Pages Posted: 27 Jan 2020

See all articles by Yonghoon Lee

Yonghoon Lee

Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST)

HeeJung Jung

Imperial College London

Tiziana Casciaro

University of Toronto

Date Written: December 2, 2019

Abstract

Adapting to network contacts’ incompatible expectations and engaging with these expectations instrumentally can elicit cognitive dissonance in people occupying network brokerage and make others perceive the brokers negatively, which can threaten brokers’ self-integrity—the sense of being a good and appropriate person. We argue that network brokers cope with the threat to their self-integrity with motivated perceptions of their disconnected contacts that help them justify the lack of social ties between their contacts: namely, brokers tend to perceive their disconnected contacts as being “meant to be disconnected.” To corroborate the mechanism underlying this hypothesis, we further argue that this perception of disconnected contacts is attenuated through self-affirmation of brokers’ personal values unrelated to the threat, because self-affirmation decreases the threat to their self-integrity and enhances their self-view. We find support of our hypotheses in an experimental study that uses a novel paradigm to experimentally manipulate network positions. We find additional and complementary support from a field study of 170 professionals working in 26 teams in the finance, fashion, and the electric power industries, where network brokers perceive disconnected alters with little intention to socially integrate. From our theory and findings, we advance a view of brokerage as a psychological phenomenon, in addition to a structural one.

Keywords: Network, Brokerage, Motivated Perceptions, Self-justification, Self-affirmation, Experiment

Suggested Citation

Lee, Yonghoon and Jung, HeeJung and Casciaro, Tiziana, The Mind of the Network Broker (December 2, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3512396 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3512396

Yonghoon Lee (Contact Author)

Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) ( email )

Clearwater Bay
Kowloon, 999999
Hong Kong

HeeJung Jung

Imperial College London ( email )

South Kensington Campus
Exhibition Road
London, Greater London SW7 2AZ
United Kingdom

Tiziana Casciaro

University of Toronto ( email )

105 St George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G8
Canada

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