A Network Approach to Stress: Brokerage and Knowledge Transfer in the Frontline Against COVID-19

Abstract

Work stress permeates contemporary organizations. However, its network underpinnings are still largely unexplored. In this paper, we introduce a network approach to stress, arguing that stress can be seen as a relational phenomenon with important consequences for organizational coordination and knowledge circulation in organizations. In a longitudinal study of medical professionals working in a frontline hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic, we drew on theory on the constraints and opportunities associated with brokerage between cliques, or Simmelian brokerage, to show that individuals spanning otherwise unconnected cliques are more exposed to stress increase over time, although stress increase is lower for individuals who engage in mediation brokerage behavior, i.e. for people who act as intermediaries between disconnected parties. Simmelian brokerage, in turn, influences ease of knowledge transfer over time; and stress change mediates the relationship between Simmelian brokerage and ease of knowledge transfer dynamics. For those Simmelian brokers, increase in ease of knowledge transfer to coworkers is explained by stress increase.