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The Process of Team Boundary Spanning in Multi-Organizational Contexts

Harvey, S; Peterson, RS; Anand, N; (2014) The Process of Team Boundary Spanning in Multi-Organizational Contexts. Small Group Research , 45 (5) 506 - 538. 10.1177/1046496414534474. Green open access

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Abstract

Work teams must increasingly operate in complex environments characterized by multiple external actors beyond team and organizational boundaries. Although previous research demonstrates the importance of boundary spanning activities to team effectiveness, it reveals relatively little about the process of boundary spanning in these environments. In this article, we investigated the processes of boundary spanning across multiple external actors in 10 cross-organizational teams. We identified three sequences for reaching out to external actors: (a) moving inside-out from vertical actors inside the host organization to horizontal actors outside of the host organization, (b) moving outside-in from horizontal actors to vertical, and (c) staying-inside with vertical actors from the host organization. Our observations suggest that inside-out and outside-in sequences were more successful than simply pleasing the host organization. We build on our empirical findings to develop a process theory of how team boundary spanning activities across multiple external actors influence team effectiveness. Our research underscores the importance of a team’s interactions with actors in its external environment beyond those in an immediate supervisory role and provides insight into the dynamics of boundary spanning in multi-organizational contexts.

Type: Article
Title: The Process of Team Boundary Spanning in Multi-Organizational Contexts
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1177/1046496414534474
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1046496414534474
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Author(s) 2015.
Keywords: boundary spanning, group process, qualitative research
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > UCL School of Management
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1427187
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