scholarly journals The emotional labour of boundary spanning

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 288-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Needham ◽  
Sharon Mastracci ◽  
Catherine Mangan
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Boundary Spanners ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Professional Boundaries ◽  
Emotional Labour ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
Low Degrees

Purpose Within public services there is a widely recognised role for workers who operate across organisational and professional boundaries. Much of this literature focusses on the organisational implications rather than on how boundary spanners engage with citizens. An increased number of public service roles require boundary spanning to support citizens with cross-cutting issues. The purpose of this paper is to explicate the emotional labour within the interactions that boundary spanners have with citizens, requiring adherence to display rules and building trust. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper which draws on illustrative examples to draw out the emotional labour within two types of boundary spanning: explicit and emergent. Findings Emotional labour theory offers a way to classify these interactions as requiring high, medium or low degrees of emotional labour. Boundary spanning theory contributes an understanding of how emotional labour is likely to be differently experienced depending on whether the boundary spanning is an explicit part of the job, or an emergent property. Originality/value Drawing on examples from public service work in a range of advanced democracies, the authors make a theoretical argument, suggesting that a more complete view of boundary spanning must account for individual-level affect and demands upon workers. Such a focus captures the “how” of the boundary spanning public encounter, and not just the institutional, political and organisational dimensions examined in most boundary spanning literatures.

Public service motivation and willingness to collaborate

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Getha-Taylor ◽  
Alexa Haddock-Bigwarfe
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Service Motivation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
The Individual

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine public service motivation (PSM) and the connection with collaborative attitudes among a sample of homeland security actors representing the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Design/methodology/approach – This study examines relationships between measures of PSM and collaboration using original survey data and hierarchical multiple regression. Findings – Findings reveal strong positive relationships between PSM measures and attitudes toward collaboration at the individual and organizational level. Research limitations/implications – Survey results are cross-sectional and are from respondents participating in a single state's homeland security summit. Practical implications – It is expected that results can be used to enhance collaboration at the individual and organizational levels. At the organizational level, results can be used for matching individuals with collaborative opportunities. At the individual level, results can be used for enhanced self-reflection and effectiveness purposes. Originality/value – This study provides insights on the relationship between PSM measures and collaborative attitudes. The research contributes to the body of scholarly work connecting PSM and correlates of interest.

Third-country nationals as intercultural boundary spanners in multinational corporations

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 521-547
Author(s):  
Christoph Barmeyer ◽  
Volker Stein ◽  
Jenny Marie Eberhardt
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Boundary Spanners ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Intercultural Management ◽  
Third Country Nationals

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the central roles, functions and competences of third-country nationals (TCNs) in intercultural boundary spanning in multinational corporations (MNCs): Why are TCNs particularly important for reducing complexity at the overlapping functional, geographic and external boundaries of MNCs with their related interferences and which role do they play as boundary spanners in cross-boundary collaboration? Design/methodology/approach After introducing the theoretical background on boundary spanning and TCNs, the methodology applied in this paper is a theory-driven, qualitative approach based on 13 in-depth semi-structured interviews with TNCs conducted in 10 MNCs. Findings The authors aggregate TCNs’ activities into four roles: disembedded cosmopolitan, intermediary, third party and team-related boundary spanner. They show that TCNs tend to understand the complex intercultural context between headquarters and subsidiaries, balance power asymmetries, use their in-between neutrality to create trust, and act in an interculturally highly competent way by using a great variety of intercultural and linguistic skills. The TCNs’ meta-competence permits a higher level, intellectual and abstract perspective, enabling TCNs to consider structures, objects and interactions from an affective distance. Research limitations/implications The differences between TCNs and “regular” expatriates or other interface managers are examined and methodological limitations as well as research implications are critically discussed. MNCs can intentionally assign TCNs with their related competence profiles when expecting boundary-spanning tasks. Originality/value This paper is one of the few published that undergirds the TCN concept with empirical data and illustrates the suitability of specific role-takers such as TCNs for some complex challenges in international and intercultural management settings.

Individual-level cultural consumer engagement styles

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda D. Hollebeek
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Consumer Engagement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Research Propositions ◽  
S Model

Purpose While the consumer engagement (CE) concept is gaining traction in the literature, little remains known regarding the ways in which consumers displaying differing cultural traits engage with brands and their differences. The purpose of this paper is to explore CE with brands for consumers exhibiting differing cultural traits, and develop a set of research propositions for these individuals’ cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social CE in brand interactions. These propositions, collectively, reflect consumers’ individual-level cultural CE styles – consumers’ motivationally driven disposition to think, feel, act, and relate to others in a certain manner characteristic of their specific individual cultural traits in brand interactions. Design/methodology/approach In this conceptual paper, literature is reviewed in the areas of CE and its conceptual relationship with Yoo et al.’s (2011) individual cultural values. Findings Key differences between individual-level cultural traits and consumers’ ensuing cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social CE with brands are addressed in a set of research propositions based on Yoo et al.’s model of individual cultural values, from which the concept of individual-level cultural CE styles is developed. Research limitations/implications This research explores differences across individuals displaying differing cultural traits and their ensuing CE with brands, which remains underexplored to date. It also develops the concept of individual-level cultural CE styles, which reflect consumers’ characteristic cultural trait-based cognitions, emotions, behaviors, and social dynamics in engaging with particular brands. Practical implications The outlined managerial implications reveal that unique marketing approaches are expected to be effective for engaging consumers exhibiting different cultural traits with brands, based on their distinctive CE styles (e.g. focusing on personalized interactions/interactions that stress consumers’ similarity to and fit with salient others for individualist/collectivist consumers, respectively). Originality/value This paper makes two important theoretical contributions. First, by offering a conceptual analysis of consumers displaying differing cultural traits and their ensuing engagement with brands, it provides an early attempt to explore individual-level cultural CE-based differences. Second, it develops the concept of individual-level cultural CE styles, which is expected to hold important theoretical and managerial implications.

Worker outcomes of LGBT-supportive policies: a cross-level model

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Pichler ◽  
Enrica Ruggs ◽  
Raymond Trau
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Support ◽  
Interactional Justice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Bisexual And Transgender ◽  
Level Model ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Justice Theories ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a cross-level conceptual model of organizational- and individual-level outcomes of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)-supportive policies for all workers regardless of their sexual orientation. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper based on an integration of propositions from perceived organizational support and organizational justice theories. Findings The model suggests that LGBT-supportive policies should be related to perceptions of organizational support directly and indirectly through diversity climate and perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. Practical implications The model implies that employees should feel more supported and more fairly treated among firms with LGBT-supportive policies and practices, and that these feelings will be reciprocated. Originality/value This is the first paper to develop propositions about the outcomes of LGBT-supportive policies for all workers, and advances the literature by developing a multi-level model of outcomes of these policies.

Boundary spanners’ knowledge sharing for innovation success in turbulent times

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 1061-1081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Keszey
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Product Development ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
New Product ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Boundary Spanners ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Market Turbulence ◽  
And Performance

PurposeThis paper aims to enrich knowledge management theory and practice by investigating how boundary spanners’ willingness to share their knowledge contributes to innovation success and by examining the contingent role of market turbulence.Design/methodology/approachCross-sectional survey data were collected from 296 top income Hungarian firms. Structural equation modelling with bootstrap procedures was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsBoundary spanners’ willingness to share their knowledge has a dual effect on innovation success, which is captured by new product development innovativeness and performance. It has a direct effect on both new product development innovativeness and performance, and it has a mediated effect on new product development performance, where new product development innovativeness serves as a mediator. The study’s results indicate that these effects are robust and not contingent on the turbulence of the firm’s marketplace.Research limitations/implicationsThis study’s respondents were managers in boundary-spanning positions charged with the task of linking the organisation with its external environment. Owing to their proximity to the external environment, their evaluation of market turbulence may be distorted.Practical implicationsMaintaining the willingness of managers in boundary-spanning positions to share what they know is essential to the continuous creation of superior new product development performance. Hence, firms should develop organisational cultures where employees’ knowledge-sharing willingness is presented as an important asset. While turbulent markets may be unpredictable and hostile, firms should not adjust their knowledge management practices.Originality/valueBuilding on the research on knowledge sharing, boundary spanning theory and contingency theory, this paper increases the understanding of the salient factors that are often implicitly assumed in mechanisms involved in transforming knowledge into new product performance. This is the first empirical study to focus on boundary spanners’ knowledge behaviour and to consider the contingent role of market turbulence in knowledge management.

It is more blessed to give than to receive: examining the impact of knowledge sharing on sharers and recipients

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Qian Zhu ◽  
Holly Chiu ◽  
Eduardo Jorge Infante Holguin-Veras
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
Learning Activity ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Conventional View ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This study aims to debunk the myth that knowledge sharing will harm one’s competiveness, and argues, from the learning theory perspective, that sharing knowledge benefits both knowledge sharers and knowledge recipients. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from 233 respondents across a variety of industries in Taiwan and the data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares analysis. Findings The results showed that both knowledge sharers and knowledge recipients benefitted from knowledge sharing, developing deeper and wider knowledge, leading to better performance, and that the benefits were greater for the knowledge sharers. Practical Implications It is suggested that managers advocate knowledge sharing as a learning activity for both knowledge sharers and knowledge recipients. Regular knowledge sharing activities are advised, with knowledge sharers engaged fully in active learning, and knowledge recipients encouraged to take a more active role, by not only listening but also starting to share themselves. Originality/value This research adds to the knowledge management literature by investigating the results of knowledge sharing for both the sharer and recipient through a learning theory lens. It challenges the conventional view that employees will be worse off if they share knowledge, and debunks it with theoretical argument and empirical evidence. It offers insights into the impact on knowledge breadth and depth at the individual level, which was previously only studied at the organizational level.

Leading from the middle: vice-principals in Singapore as boundary spanners

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanne Ho ◽  
Trivina Kang ◽  
Imran Shaari
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Middle Managers ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Boundary Spanners ◽  
Lateral Direction ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Vice Principals ◽  
Vice Principal

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine leading from the middle, which is consistent with calls to distribute leadership, while expanding the direction of influence, from the normal top-down to include a bottom-up or lateral direction. The paper proposes that the position of the vice-principal enables the role incumbent to lead from the middle as a boundary spanner. The research question was what leadership from the middle looks like for vice-principals.Design/methodology/approachThe study consisted of interviews of 28 vice-principals and 10 principals. A mixed case and theme-oriented strategy was adapted, with member checking with each vice-principal.FindingsThe findings indicate that in leading from the middle, vice-principals play boundary spanning roles of connecting, translating and brokering: (1) connecting between organisational levels, (2) translating between vision/direction and actualisation, (3) connecting between middle managers and (4) brokering and translating between the ministry and the school.Originality/valueLeading from the middle is a nascent concept which is worth exploring, given the complexity of educational systems with multiple ecological levels, and the need for leadership to create coherence between the levels.

scholarly journals Local governance, corruption, and public service quality: evidence from a national survey in Vietnam

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thang V. Nguyen ◽  
Thang N. Bach ◽  
Thanh Q. Le ◽  
Canh Q. Le
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Transition Economy ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Highly Correlated

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether higher levels of transparency, accountability, and participation have a statistically significant association with corruption, and whether corruption is highly correlated with lower public service quality in the context of Vietnam’s transition economy. Design/methodology/approach Using individual-level survey data from Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index, the research employs an ordered probit model to test whether greater transparency, accountability, and participation is associated with lower levels of corruption. Moreover, district-level data are used to test the relationship between corruption and quality of public services particularly in healthcare and primary education. Findings Results show that a higher level of transparency, participation, and accountability is associated with a lower level of corruption, and that corruption is negatively associated with public service quality. Research limitations/implications The use of cross-sectional data does not allow the establishment of causal relationships among variables. Practical implications The research suggests that fostering accountability to citizens and non-state sectors and promotion of genuine participation from these actors are critical for the future anti-corruption agenda. Originality/value In developing countries, whether corruption enhances efficiency of service provision is highly debatable. This research contributes to this debate by suggesting that corruption significantly decreases the quality of public service, and that improving local governance helps reduce corruption.

scholarly journals Controlling outsourced management accounting to build legitimacy

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-463
Author(s):  
Sinikka Lepistö ◽  
Justyna Dobroszek ◽  
Lauri Lepistö ◽  
Ewelina Zarzycka
Keyword(s):  
Management Accounting ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Boundary Spanners ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Organisational Level ◽  
Theory Framework

Purpose This paper aims to explore controls within an inter-organisational relationship involving outsourced management accounting services from the contractor’s perspective. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data from within the relationship are analysed in a legitimacy-theory framework, illustrating how controls within the relationship are intended to build the contractor’s legitimacy and what kinds of implications the controls have in relation to conflicts between interests inherent in the relationship. Findings The legitimacy perspective clarifies that while controls are aimed at ensuring efficiency for the client, they may also provide symbolic displays of the appropriateness of the contractor’s actions both at an inter-organisational level for the client and at an individual level for the contractor’s employees. While the contractor intends to build legitimacy with the client by demonstrating utility in the form of efficiency, the process also gives the client influence and allows the disposition in terms of shared values to be demonstrated. However, this process has some negative consequences for the contractor’s employees as it is insufficient for serving the boundary-spanning employees’ interests connected with the nature of their work. Hence, the same controls need to yield benefits and fair outcomes for employees. The controls simultaneously foster interconnections that contribute to permanence and formalise the outsourcing of complex services, thereby rendering such processes comprehensible and transferable to other settings, which can be seen to serve the contractor’s continuity interests. Originality/value The paper contributes to academic research by illustrating how controls within inter-organisational relationships not only steer boundary-spanners’ work to conform to a client’s needs but may also help to build legitimacy via symbolic properties in the presence of conflicting interests at both an inter-organisational and individual level. It specifically highlights the important role of boundary-spanners lower in the organisational structure, who both affect and are influenced by the intentions to build legitimacy with the client.

How to engage the crowd for innovation in a restricted market? A practice perspective of Google's boundary spanning in China

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Lissillour ◽  
Jean-Michel Sahut
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Boundary Spanners ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theory Of Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Perspective ◽  
Global Companies

PurposeTechnological firms increasingly depend on open innovation to compete in hypercompetitive markets. To openly engage the creativity of a multitude of private actors, firms can rely on crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing challenges global companies as they span organizational boundaries to attract multiple local partners. Global companies must engage in boundary spanning to successfully communicate and create a sense of community with smaller local partners despite status and cultural differences. The collaboration between Google and developers in China deserves to be studied in particular, because it operates within a restricted market.Design/methodology/approachThis paper argues that crowdsourcing for innovation on a global scale requires effective boundary spanning capabilities. These boundary-spanning practices ensure smooth cooperation with the crowd and solve problems relating to differences in status and organizational contexts. This study applies Bourdieu's theory of practice including the concept of capital (economic, intellectual, social and symbolic) to understand the social relationships between Google and a growing community of Chinese developers. It also draws on a case study including ten semistructured interviews, which have been triangulated with internal documents and data from selected websites.FindingsFour types of capital (symbolic, intellectual, social and economic) have been identified as important devices to understand the sources of power and the stakes of Googlers and developers in the joint field. These types of capital contribute to structure the social fields in which developers and Google cooperate and their practice. The success of the collaboration between Google and Chinese developers can arguably be attributed to Google's ability to create boundary-spanning activities in order to reduce the endowment differential in the four types of capital and improve their communication. Therefore, this research provides a deep and conceptualized description of boundary-spanning practices, as well as providing a useful contribution for managers involved in crowdsourcing via platform in culturally different markets.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this study is methodological in nature, relating to the absence of interviews with board members of Google China who are reluctant to speak about Google activities in China for political raisons. This restriction is partly counterbalanced by the analysis of publicly available secondary data such as news and communications.Practical implicationsThis research has generated practical recommendations for managers of organizations, which require optimal boundary spanning for crowdsourcing. Managers must understand the different sources of social boundaries between their organization and the crowd. The crowd should be segmented into smaller groups with distinctive identities, and organizations should systematically design boundary-spanning activities to address each boundary of each segment. The boundary-spanning activities involve a specific set of tools, programs and platforms to address the target group. Efficient boundary spanning depends on the necessity to select boundary spanners with high cultural intelligence and communication skills.Social implicationsThis paper draws on Bourdieu's theory of practice to investigate the role of boundary spanning in crowdsourcing for innovation, specifically in the joint field between Google and Chinese developers. This research reveals how boundary objects such as developer documents, websites, programs and events are essential for developers to be able to participate on Google's platform. Companies should be prepared to invest in the design and delivery of boundary-spanning activities and objects, knowing that these are also a locus for negotiation with local partners.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the literature by applying the boundary-spanner theory to Google crowdsourcing practices within a restricted market. Bourdieu's theory of practice has proven to be a potent perspective with which to better understand the positive role of boundary spanners in the joint field between Google and Chinese developers. Moreover, this practice perspective has not been used in prior research to highlight power relations in crowdsourcing for innovation. This study has shown that, in addition to boundary objects, boundary spanners can also contribute in the transfer of intellectual capital, which is the pivotal resource for boundary spanning in this field.

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