Broker Networks: says who?

broker /'brəʊkə(r)/ n. 1 an agent who buys and sells for others; a middleman. (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1990).

I think that the term “broker” is misleading, in that it connotes an independence which is not necessarily present in the literature, and which in turn enables stereotyping of the social identity of the broker (compare a money-sucking sycophant and a legitimate and beneficial part of the organisational process).

Cranefield and Yoong (2007) use the term “gatekeeper”: identified as a key person, typically a boundary spanner, who establishes information and communication networks, and filters and facilitates information transfer between an organisation and its environment. The gatekeepers in this study were managers or senior policy analysts from within the organisation, with domain knowledge and with the sanction and sanctioning force and mana of the government. MfO is regarded as a successful project, and much of the success can be attributed to domain knowledge, prior relationships and their ability to synthesise the different paradigms. These are skills and expertise that are not typically associated with external consultants.

Leow, Bleimann and Murphy (2004) attempt to introduce a “new paradigm” to resolve many IT problems involving communication: “communication between people”. A KB (knowledge broker) will identify experts, be available, have connections, will respond to information requests. In reality this is not a new paradigm, and the KB would previously have been called a librarian, also now known as an information professional. For example, the PWC's knowledge portal is presented as a KMS, yet it was developed by an information professional / librarian: Michelle Dollinger.

I am also not sure that Leow et al's knowledge broker network is a network in terms of Social Network Theory because it is the attributes of the individual that matters: the individual is identified as an expert, and the predisposition or ability to share knowledge affects the relationship – a well known problem in KM.

Cranefield, J. & Yoong, P. (2007). The role of the translator/interpreter in knowledge transfer environments. Knowledge and Process Management, 14(2), 95-103.

Loew, R., Bleimann, U. & Murphy, B. (2004). Knowledge broker network based on communication between humans.