Organizational members face a motivational dilemma in influencing the social relationships of others: The organization benefits from high connectedness among employees, but personal advantages accrue to those who occupy brokerage positions between disconnected others. In this study, we draw on the organizational paradox perspective to argue that the reconciliation of these contrasting objectives lies in recognizing one's agency to facilitate connectedness (closing) within a social structure and the search for new connections (opening) as mutually supportive. Across two field studies, we examine how individuals' advantageous position in an organizational network emerges from the interplay between a tertius iungens orientation to join others in collaboration and network building to open new brokering opportunities. In Study 1, analyses of a sample of two-wave, cross-lagged panel data show that a tertius iungens orientation contributes to the number of outgoing ties to other actors via network building. Study 2 uses a network survey to add that a tertius iungens orientation is positively associated with incoming ties from others and network brokerage, and again, these relationships are mediated by network building. Overall, our results indicate that by increasing connectedness in their organizational social network, individuals simultaneously activate opening behaviors that facilitate the expansion of their network, thereby revitalizing their structurally advantageous position.

中文翻译：

---

开辟新的经纪机会，同时关闭现有的经纪机会：Tertius Iungens 的定位是网络优势的来源

组织成员在影响他人的社会关系时面临着动机困境：组织从员工之间的高度联系中受益，但那些在不相干的其他人之间担任经纪人职位的人却获得了个人优势。在本研究中，我们利用组织悖论的观点认为，这些对比目标的调和在于认识到一个人在社会结构中促进联系（封闭）的能动性和对新联系（开放）的寻求是相互支持的。通过两项实地研究，我们研究了个人在组织网络中的优势地位如何从与他人合作的tertius iungens导向和网络建设之间的相互作用中显现出来，以开辟新的经纪机会。在研究 1 中，对两波、交叉滞后面板数据样本的分析表明，tertius iungens方向有助于通过网络构建与其他参与者建立传出联系的数量。研究 2 使用网络调查补充说，tertius iungens取向与来自他人和网络经纪的传入关系呈正相关，而且这些关系是通过网络构建来调节的。总体而言，我们的结果表明，通过增加组织社交网络的连通性，个人同时激活有利于其网络扩展的开放行为，从而重振其结构性优势地位。