<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Problem-solving effectiveness is key to organizational performance. To solve problems, gathering information from colleagues is critical, and positioning brokerage in communication networks is beneficial. The communication network for problem-solving is formed depending on the nature of the problem. Thus, the problem-solving network is the relational event network, and the connection of the problem-solving network dynamically changes over time depending on the problem basis. This study investigates the dynamics of brokerage in a problem-solving network and its impact on productivity in a company that provides technical support and troubleshooting for the IT system that its corporate customers use. By exploiting high-frequency data on face-to-face communication among employees collected by wearable sensors, we established the following results. First, the communication partners of each employee change weekly, which is a reasonable time to solve problems in the company. Second, with the change in the communication network, employees who position brokerage also change on a weekly basis. Third, while brokerage in a week has a positive impact on employee performance during the week, it has no impact on employee performance in the following week.</p>
</abstract>

Problem-solving effectiveness is key to organizational performance. To solve problems, gathering information from colleagues is critical, and positioning brokerage in communication networks is beneficial. The communication network for problem-solving is formed depending on the nature of the problem. Thus, the problem-solving network is the relational event network, and the connection of the problem-solving network dynamically changes over time depending on the problem basis. This study investigates the dynamics of brokerage in a problem-solving network and its impact on productivity in a company that provides technical support and troubleshooting for the IT system that its corporate customers use. By exploiting high-frequency data on face-to-face communication among employees collected by wearable sensors, we established the following results. First, the communication partners of each employee change weekly, which is a reasonable time to solve problems in the company. Second, with the change in the communication network, employees who position brokerage also change on a weekly basis. Third, while brokerage in a week has a positive impact on employee performance during the week, it has no impact on employee performance in the following week.

The Impact of Brokerage in a Communication Network on Productivity: Evidence from Sensor Data

Graduate School of Management and Information of Innovation

Connections

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Problem-solving effectiveness is key to organizational performance. To solve problems, gathering information from colleagues is critical, and positioning...

The Impact of Brokerage in a Communication Network on Productivity: Evidence from Sensor Data

Article Category: Article

Published Online: May 29, 2024

Page range: -

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/connections-2019.030

Keywords
Information collection, Communication, Network dynamics, Intellectual workplace, Brokerage

© 2024 Kentaro Nakajima et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Impact of Brokerage in a Communication Network on Productivity: Evidence from Sensor Data

Article Category: Article

Published Online: May 29, 2024

Page range: -

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/connections-2019.030

KeywordsInformation collection, Communication, Network dynamics, Intellectual workplace, Brokerage

© 2024 Kentaro Nakajima et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Information collection, Communication, Network dynamics, Intellectual workplace, Brokerage