Relationship Formation and Change in Ego Networks: A Regulatory Focus Framework

Drawing on regulatory focus and brokerage literatures, we develop new theory that explains individuals’ motivation to form and change their relationships in organizational networks. Specifically, we examine how promotion and prevention regulatory foci influence such relational processes as tie formation, maintenance, dissolution, and reconstitution. We further explore the relationship between motivational orientations of regulatory foci and relational orientations to brokerage (i.e., tertius iungens/gaudens) and develop a typology that outlines four major ego-level configurations. Each of the four configurations, labeled dutiful coordinators, aspirational arbitrators, versatile brokers, and indifferent egos, offers distinct predictions on network change and structuring. Overall, our theory contributes to organization theory by elaborating on the important role of ego motivation and strategy in organizational networks, and in so doing, advances research that focuses on individual agency in social networks and complements structuralist approaches to understanding social network dynamics.

Sharing public health data and information across borders: lessons from Southeast Asia

Background

The importance of data and information sharing for the prevention and control of infectious diseases has long been recognised. In recent years, public health emergencies such as avian influenza, drug-resistant malaria, and Ebola have brought renewed attention to the need for effective communication channels between health authorities, particularly in regional contexts where neighbouring countries share common health threats. However, little empirical research has been conducted to date to explore the range of factors that may affect the transfer, exchange, and use of public health data and expertise across borders, especially in developing contexts.

Methods

To explore these issues, 60 interviews were conducted with domestic and international stakeholders in Cambodia and Vietnam, selected amongst those who were involved in regional public health programmes and networks. Data analysis was structured around three categories mapped across the dataset: (1) the nature of shared data and information; (2) the nature of communication channels; and (3) how information flow may be affected by the local, regional, and global system of rules and arrangements.

Results

There has been a great intensification in the circulation of data, information, and expertise across borders in Southeast Asia. However, findings from this study document ways in which the movement of data and information from production sites to other places can be challenging due to different standards and practices, language barriers, different national structures and rules that govern the circulation of health information inside and outside countries, imbalances in capacities and power, and sustainability of financing arrangements.

Conclusions

Our study highlights the complex socio-technical nature of data and information sharing, suggesting that best practices require significant involvement of an independent third-party brokering organisation or office, which can redress imbalances between country partners at different levels in the data sharing process, create meaningful communication channels and make the most of shared information and data sets.

Brokerage as Catalysis: How Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes Escalated Modernism

The analysis elaborates and illustrates a proposition on brokerage that is implicit in existing research—that through self-assembling their ties, brokers may trigger chains of events with systemic consequences that they can only partly control or benefit from. By relaxing the assumption of strategic control, the analysis contributes to reducing the discrepancy between micro and macro levels of analysis. This approach is illustrated with the case of the Ballets Russes (1909–1929) and its founder Sergei Diaghilev, who revolutionized the arts in the early 20th century by aggregating developments in dance, music, design and literature. The role of a catalyst emerges in connecting artists on the supply side and in matching supply and demand for novelty. Catalysis was triggered by the interaction between identity and field-level fragmentation when the personal network of an unusually multifaceted broker became a platform for the interpenetration of heretofore disconnected social networks. However, in escalating Modernism Diaghilev’s brokerage contributed to the demise of the social world that generated the Ballets Russes.

Elite connectivity and concerted action in French organization

Purpose

– The purpose of this study is to explore some of the distinctive features of organizing and organization in France which set it apart from organization in other nations, and which are fundamental to itsmodus operandi. In particular, this article is concerned with elite connectivity and concerted action by elite “connectors”.

Design/methodology/approach

– The research underpinning this article stems from a cross-national comparative project on business elites and corporate governance in France and the UK. This has three dimensions, being quantitative, qualitative and case study-based. Concerted action by the ruling elite is explored through two illustrative vignettes: the ousting from office of Jean-Marie Messier and State-sponsored expansion as pursued by EDF. Both examples shed light on the French business elite’s response to globalization and the development of international business.

Findings

– The paper finds elite cohesion to be achieved quite differently in the two countries. In addition, it finds that the ties that bind French connectors tend to be strong and institutionally based.

Practical implications

– The case of EDF suggests that the most ambitious of State-sponsored strategies can also be the most successful. It implies that elite ideologies in France have deviated relatively little from sentiments expressed by Rousseau and de Gaulle concerning the primacy of the national interest and the conviction that firms can serve as an (expansionist) instrument of the nation. The Messier case illuminates the pattern of close relationships among the French business elite. It demonstrates how a strategy of expansion may come unstuck when it is not grounded in the customary modes of business regulation.

Originality/value

– This research confirms a slight preference on the part of the French business elite for more homogenous ties. Against this, the paper demonstrates that a significant proportion of the French elite act as boundary spanners, brokering relationships with others from more distant parts of the wider network. The integration of the French elite in the Eurozone has potentially favored bridge-building relationships and weakened national embeddedness. This may contribute to the decline of indigenous interlocks, while promoting the further internationalization of top management teams. The implications of this for organizational strategy, firm survival and economic performance form an agenda for future research.

Pathways to Power: Class, Hyper-Agency and the French Corporate Elite

This paper explores pathways to power from the perspective of the French corporate elite. It compares those who enter the ‘field of power’ with those who fail to reach this final tier. Adopting an innovative econometric approach, we develop and test three hypotheses. These underline the pivotal role of external networks and the strategic advantage of hyper-agency in maintaining power; and indicate that social origin remains a powerful driver in determining success. Birthright and meritocracy emerge as two competing institutional logics which influence life chances. Higher-status agents benefit from mutual recognition which enhances their likelihood of co-option to the extra-corporate networks that facilitate hyper-agency. The objectification of class-based differences conceals their arbitrary nature while institutionalizing the principles informing stratification. We re-connect class analysis with organizational theory, arguing that social origin exerts an enduring influence on selection dynamics which inform processes of hierarchical reproduction in the corporate elite and society at large.