Skip to main content
Department of Psychiatry Department of Psychiatry
  1. HOME
  2. Research
  3. Programs, Centers & Labs
  4. IN STEP Center
  5. Tools and Resources
  6. Definitions of Team Constructs
  7. Team Processes
  8. Interpersonal Phase Processes
  9. Boundary Spanning

Boundary Spanning 

Definition

“A team’s efforts to establish and manage external linkage that can occur within an organization (e.g. across marketing and manufacturing teams) or across organizational boundaries (e.g. to external customers, supplies; see Ancona, 1990).” (Marrone, 2010, p. 912)

Key References

  • Ancona, D., & Caldwell, D. F. (1992). Bridging the boundary: external activity and performance in organizational teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37(4), 634. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393475
    • Developed survey and interview measure external boundary spanning activities, evaluated how communication direction (horizontal & vertical) influences content, location (internal v external) and overall performance.
  • Levina, N., & Vaast, E. (2005). The Emergence of boundary spanning Competence in Practice: Implications for implementation and use of information systems. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 29(2), 335. https://doi.org/10.2307/25148682
    • Compared two case studies, focused on boundary spanners-in-practice (those that actually engage in practice) versus nominated boundary spanners (people in positions of power), addresses how boundary spanning affects the implementation of information systems.
  • Marrone, J. A., Tesluk, P. E., & Carson, J. B. (2007). A multilevel investigation of antecedents and consequences of team member Boundary-Spanning behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 50(6), 1423–1439. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.28225967
    • Found that external team focus and boundary sanding self-efficacy were significant antecedents of team boundary spanning behaviors and team performance and viability were significant outcomes of team boundary spanning behaviors.

Key Measurements

  • Ancona & Caldwell 1992: Survey, 5-item Likert scale, alpha = .86, interviews also commonly used

Recent Articles

  • Huang, Y., Luo, Y., Liu, Y., & Yang, Q. (2016). An investigation of interpersonal ties in interorganizational exchanges in emerging markets. Journal of Management, 42(6), 1557–1587. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206313511115
    • Evaluated boundary spanning activities based on personal connections between high power and low power dyads, while interpersonal connections had a greater impact at the lower level they were significantly positively related to cooperation and boundary spanning behaviors.
  • Van Osch, W., & Steinfield, C. (2016). Team Boundary Spanning: Strategic Implications for the Implementation and use of Enterprise Social Media. Journal of Information Technology, 31(2), 207–225. https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2016.12
    • Connected boundary spanning enterprise social media (ESM), case study, identified that representation was the most common type of boundary spanning activity illustrated through enterprise social media postings.
  • Birkinshaw, J., Ambos, T. C., & Bouquet, C. (2017). Boundary Spanning Activities of Corporate HQ Executives Insights from a Longitudinal Study. Journal of Management Studies, 54(4), 422–454. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12260
    • Corporate case study, differentiated between 4 types of boundary spanning, 1. Facilitating, 2. Lubricating, 3. Reconciling, 4. Spearheading
    • Focused on changes in internal versus external effectiveness overtime based on boundary spanning activity type.