The paradox of agency: feeling powerful reduces brokerage opportunity recognition yet increases willingness to broker

Published in: Journal of Applied Psychology - August 2018

Written by

Blaine Landis, Martin Kilduff, Jochen Menges and Gavin Kilduff

Summary

What we found: Employees who perceive themselves as powerful - are less likely to bring disconnected people together because they fail to recognize opportunities to connect these people. Paradoxically though, powerful people really want to bring people together, but miss the opportunities to do so.

Why it matters: Our research highlights that being willing to connect people is not enough - leaders also need to recognize and act on opportunities to do so. Powerful employees may want to bring people together, while not seeing where they can effectively deploy those efforts.

What next: Organizations should consider highlighting networking opportunities to powerful employees and sharpening their attention to these opportunities so that their will leads to concrete action.