Bridging the (structural) gap: HR practitioners as brokers of the space between academics and employee informants

Abstract

Human resource (HR) practitioners are regularly contacted by academic researchers who seek access to interviewees and/or survey respondents within the HR practitioner’s organisation. However, despite interest in closing the research-practice gap, there has been limited consideration of the HR practitioner’s role in the conduct of organisational field research. To address this, we draw upon insights from the social networks literature on brokerage to propose that HR practitioners can function as research brokers—individuals behaving as intermediaries between internal and external organisational stakeholders to control or facilitate academic research activities. We integrate the literatures on network brokerage and boundary management strategies to develop a typology of HR practitioner brokering behaviours. We identify which conditions lend themselves to productive brokering that can facilitate the execution of research project partnerships. We outline challenges faced by HR practitioners in the research brokerage role and approaches for addressing these challenges. Finally, we identify opportunities for furthering the examination of research brokerage.