Brokering in Hierarchies versus Networks: How Organizational Structure Shapes Social Relations

Individuals often engage in brokering behaviors intended to influence other people’s interactions and relationships. An open research question in the nascent literature on brokering as a social process concerns its situational antecedents. We introduce and test the novel hypothesis that employees’ construal of the structure of work organizations as a hierarchy versus a network shapes the extent to which they judge different brokering behaviors as normative and useful for getting ahead at work. Converging evidence from three studies suggests that, relative to network construals, hierarchy construals inhibit intermediary and conciliatory brokering and facilitate divisive brokering. Our theory and findings identify a previously overlooked antecedent of brokering behavior and underscore the usefulness of social structure construals for explaining social relations in organizations.