Brokering Work Relationships: Exploring the Tie Management Process in the Workplace

There are many reasons why relationships are started, maintained, and dissolved in the workplace. This study explores how network awareness (i.e., how well a person feels they know who is connected with whom), tertius iungens orientation (i.e., the behavioral tendency to join together people who would otherwise be disconnected), and affective identification (i.e., positive feelings associated with membership) relate to workplace communication for tie management. Using a sample of working adults in the U.S. ( N = 304), this study leverages the changing others’ relationship (COR) framework and examines how these actor perceptions are associated with tie initiation, tie maintenance, and tie dissolution. Structural equation modeling showed that network awareness and tertius iungens orientation were both positively associated with tie initiation and maintenance, but unrelated to tie dissolution. In contrast, affective identification was negatively related to tie dissolution, but unrelated to initiation or maintenance. These results offer evidence regarding how actors exert agency within work networks, extending network theory, and presenting practical suggestions for fostering the benefits of brokering within organizational contexts.