Structural Holes and Good Ideas

This article outlines the mechanism by which brokerage provides social capital. Opinion and behavior are more homogeneous within than between groups, so people connected across groups are more familiar with alternative ways of thinking and behaving. Brokerage across the structural holes between groups provides a vision of op-tions otherwise unseen, which is the mechanism by which brokerage becomes social capital. I review evidence consistent with the hy-pothesis, then look at the networks around managers in a large American electronics company. The organization is rife with struc-tural holes, and brokerage has its expected correlates. Compensation, positive performance evaluations, promotions, and good ideas…