NETWORK CENTRALITY, POWER, AND INNOVATION INVOLVEMENT - DETERMINANTS OF TECHNICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ROLES

The reported research investigated the relative impacts of individual attributes, formal position, and network centrality on the exercise of individual power, measured as involvement in technical and administra tive innovations. Centrality was more important for administrative inn ovation roles, and rank and centrality were indistinguishable in their effects on technical innovation roles. Centrality also appeared to me diate the impact of individual attributes and formal position on admin istrative innovation roles to a greater extent than it mediated their impact on technical roles. Results suggest that an organization's info rmal structure may be more critical than its formal structure when the exercise of power requires extensive boundary spanning and that sourc es of power have both general and innovation-specific effects.