Knowledge Matters™

It’s no secret that I am a fan of Professor Ronald Burt’s work. His book “Structural Holes: the Social Structure of Competition ”, is a seminal publication. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for “Brokerage and Closure ”, although I would still give it four stars. Read in sequence and in conjunction with each other they offer the knowledge management practitioner and network analyst some useful insights.

Once again Burt’s writing style is academic in flavour, with many examples. At times it is heavy going, but I still think well worth the effort. Burt remains interested in the structure of networks and particularly the links, or relationships, rather than node attributes. I think the focus on links rather than nodes is important. I just wish the software tools were better at showing link attributes, although I note NetMiner 3 is becoming more powerful in this area.  One of the taken for granted but important assertions Burt makes is relationships amplify diversity and individual power, however in turn many diverse links enhance the power of relationships.

The central theme of this book is still around brokerage between structural holes , but this time he introduces the idea of closure. For Burt closure is about reputation building. Unlike brokerage closure is typically not the direct result of efforts by an individual. Instead closure emerges from dense linkages in a network where one individual is ‘favoured’ over others for some reason. Typically this arises because this individual employs a Tertius Iungens strategy rather than a Tertius Gaudens strategy, although Burt does not make such a clear-cut distinction.

One of the paradoxes Burt highlights is the tension between brokerage and closure. Closure results in trust and a dense or tightly knitted network, but it can also result in group-think and conformity, a problem I see in some public list-serves at the moment. On the other hand brokerage opens the network to new opportunities, but ultimately is reliant on trust networks. From this I deduce that Tertius Gaudens strategies slowly evolve into Tertius Iungens networks, but here I could be wrong. It also seems to me that most organisations are optimised for closure.

All in all this book was an excellent read, although I do believe “Structural Holes: the Social Structure of Competition” should be read first. I would recommend this book to any serious knowledge practitioner or network analyst. I remain convinced that understanding structural holes matter. I am also convinced understanding who is employing a Tertius Gaudens or Tertius Iungens strategy matters!

Regards, Graham