The contingent effect of work roles on brokerage in professional organizations

Abstract In this paper, we consider whether brokerage in an intra-organizational communication network and type of work role interact to predict individual performance in a professional organization. The independent–interdependent nature of work roles is considered a key factor in structural contingency theory, but is yet to be studied in relation to brokerage. We propose that a brokerage position has a joint effect on performance along with work role in a study of organization-wide communication network in an architectural firm with 65 employees. Our analysis suggests an association between brokerage and role-prescribed performance for individuals in both interdependent and independent types of work roles. Our findings also suggest that interdependent roles requiring broad, organization-wide collaboration, and communication with others, brokerage is positively associated with the performance prescribed by the role, but for independent roles, wherein collaboration and communication are somewhat limited by the formal role, brokerage has far less of an effect. Our findings contribute to brokerage theory by comparing how brokerage affects performance in two distinct work roles by illustrating how the benefits of brokerage seem more restricted to those in interdependent work roles. The contribution of this paper is to suggest the independent–interdependent nature of work role as a boundary condition for brokerage.