The active client: The boundary-spanning roles of internal consultants as gatekeepers, brokers and partners of their external counterparts

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 485-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Sturdy ◽  
Christopher Wright
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Knowledge Flows ◽  
Organizational Boundaries ◽  
Management Knowledge ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
Knowledge Barriers ◽  
Active Client ◽  
Political Character

This article examines the active client of management consultancy as a key agent in managing and mediating knowledge flows across organizational boundaries. From a qualitative study of a particular case of active clients—internal consultants managing their external counterparts—three boundary-spanning roles are identified. Active clients can act as a gatekeeper, broker and partner with respect to both consultants and the knowledge they bring. These roles are shown to vary according to a client’s expertise, formal project responsibilities and personal reputation, as well as the different phases of consulting projects. They not only elucidate an otherwise neglected or static dimension of management consultancy—client activity—but highlight the dynamic and essentially political character of serving as knowledge barriers and/or bridges in the intermediation and co-production of management knowledge across organizational boundaries.

scholarly journals Time to dismiss the idea of a structural fix within government? An analysis of intersectoral action for health in Danish municipalities

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (22_suppl) ◽  
pp. 48-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ditte H. Holt ◽  
Gemma Carey ◽  
Morten H. Rod
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Governance Structures ◽  
Intersectoral Action ◽  
Structural Reorganization ◽  
Organizational Boundaries ◽  
Public Health Action ◽  
Process Consulting ◽  
Health Action

Aims: This paper examines the role of organizational structure within government(s) in attempts to implement intersectoral action for health in Danish municipalities. We discuss the implications of structural reorganization and the governance structures that are established in order to ensure coordination and integration between policy sectors. Methods: The paper is based on 49 interviews with civil servants from health and non-health sectors of 10 municipalities. Based on participants’ experiences, cases have been described and analyzed in an iterative process consulting the literature on Health in All Policies and joined-up government. Results: Continuous and frequent processes of reorganizing were widespread in the municipalities. However, they appeared to have little effect on policy change. The two most common governance structures established to transcend organizational boundaries were the central unit and the intersectoral committee. According to the experiences of participants, paradoxically both of these organizational solutions tend to reproduce the organizational problems they are intended to overcome. Even if structural reorganization may succeed in dissolving some sector boundaries, it will inevitably create new ones. Conclusions: It is time to dismiss the idea that intersectoral action for health can be achieved by means of a structural fix. Rather than rearranging organizational boundaries it may be more useful to seek to manage the silos which exist in any organization, e.g. by promoting awareness of their implications for public health action and by enhancing the boundary spanning skills of public health officers.

Telework and People with Disabilities

2021 ◽  
pp. 1119-1137
Author(s):  
Rachelle Bosua ◽  
Marianne Gloet
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Work Culture ◽  
Digital Inclusion ◽  
Supportive Environment ◽  
Management Knowledge ◽  
Barriers To Access ◽  
It Support ◽  
Management Issues

People with disabilities face unique challenges to access work and participate in a work culture and environment. The increasing uptake of telework is promising from a digital inclusion perspective for people with disabilities. This qualitative study explored barriers and problems of including people with disabilities through telework in Australia. The study focused on management and worker perspectives and findings indicate that both parties face unique challenges to accommodate and include people with disabilities in telework arrangements. Worker barriers to access telework relate to management attitudes, physical and infrastructure problems, social isolation misconceptions, lack of management trust, insufficient telework opportunities and inadequate management knowledge of IT support and reasonable adjustment for people with disabilities. Management issues involve cultural intolerance towards diversity and disability in general, as well as a lack of policies and processes that create a supportive environment for people with disabilities who wish to telework.

scholarly journals Team Boundary Spanning in a Large Engineering Project

2020 ◽  
pp. 104649642097683
Author(s):  
Chia-Yu Kou
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Work Teams ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Management Team ◽  
The Other ◽  
Engineering Project ◽  
Team Interactions ◽  
Project Level

This paper reports on a qualitative study of how 12 work teams and a project-management team spanned their boundaries in a large engineering project. The study identified two types of boundary-spanning activities. Project-level managers carried out receptive activities in which they spanned boundaries vertically, adapted their management practices, and attuned themselves to the teams. Team-level managers’ activities, on the other hand, were reactive: they spanned boundaries vertically and horizontally when they needed to, and made informal connections to peer teams and project-level management. These findings underscore the important role of team boundary-spanning activities in the shape of subsequent inter-team interactions.

Telework and People with Disabilities

2017 ◽  
pp. 145-169
Author(s):  
Rachelle Bosua ◽  
Marianne Gloet
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Work Culture ◽  
Digital Inclusion ◽  
Supportive Environment ◽  
Management Knowledge ◽  
Barriers To Access ◽  
It Support ◽  
Management Issues

People with disabilities face unique challenges to access work and participate in a work culture and environment. The increasing uptake of telework is promising from a digital inclusion perspective for people with disabilities. This qualitative study explored barriers and problems of including people with disabilities through telework in Australia. The study focused on management and worker perspectives and findings indicate that both parties face unique challenges to accommodate and include people with disabilities in telework arrangements. Worker barriers to access telework relate to management attitudes, physical and infrastructure problems, social isolation misconceptions, lack of management trust, insufficient telework opportunities and inadequate management knowledge of IT support and reasonable adjustment for people with disabilities. Management issues involve cultural intolerance towards diversity and disability in general, as well as a lack of policies and processes that create a supportive environment for people with disabilities who wish to telework.

Small Company (Y)

2011 ◽  
pp. 277-292
Author(s):  
Peter Busch
Keyword(s):  
Small Firm ◽  
Knowledge Flows ◽  
Sample Population ◽  
Organisational Structure ◽  
Small Company ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
Is Management ◽  
Basic Parameters ◽  
Staff Mix ◽  
Physical Layout

In many ways, the dynamics of this smaller company is diametrically opposed to that of the previous one. Its mission one may recall was different, it was an IS management consultancy with a staff base that was senior (40s/50s) in age with relatively long years of IT experience. Although the sample population was very small (7), it was essentially a small firm with basically a mono-cultural (Anglo-Celtic) staff mix. Coupling these basic parameters with a physical layout that represents only one floor of a building, punctuated perhaps by a couple offices there is clearly a very different organisational structure. Organisation Y provides an opportunity to examine likely knowledge flows in a small entrepreneurial or professional firm.

scholarly journals Transformational Ability of Energy Network Companies: The Role of Institutional Logics and Boundary Spanners

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 13582
Author(s):  
Larissa Shnayder ◽  
Hans van Kranenburg ◽  
Sjors Witjes
Keyword(s):  
Energy Transition ◽  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Boundary Spanners ◽  
Organizational Boundaries ◽  
Organizational Boundary ◽  
Energy Transitions ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Energy Network

Energy network companies play a vital role in energy transitions. The transformational ability of these companies influences the process of energy transitions and the effectiveness of policies in this domain. This study shows the need for managers of network companies as well as scholars and policy makers operating in the midst of energy transitions to acknowledge the importance and value of boundary spanners in improving the transformation ability of these companies to play their role in facilitating energy transitions. Evidence comes from an in-depth analysis of an energy network company in the Netherlands. Our findings show that the transformation ability of energy network companies depends on various instances of boundary spanning as these organizations address differing or conflicting intra- and inter-organizational institutional logics when contributing to an energy transition. In the context of energy transitions, inter-organizational boundary spanning generally demands more resources and attention than the spanning of intra-organizational boundaries. Additionally, intra-organizational boundaries affect inter-organizational relationships, particularly in the policy arena. Our findings indicate that to carry out the type of institutional change that an energy transition requires, more attention and resources should be dedicated to intra-organizational boundary spanning, even as the need to connect external stakeholders increases.

scholarly journals Explaining national variation in the use of management consulting knowledge: A framework

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 537-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Sturdy ◽  
Joe O’Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
Influencing Factors ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Management Consulting ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Developed Economies ◽  
Management Knowledge ◽  
Basic Framework ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
Management Literature ◽  
External Management

The management literature frequently assumes that management consultancy is the predominant source of external management knowledge for organisations. However, its use is invariably confined to a few Western, developed economies. Such variation is rarely acknowledged, let alone explained. In this conceptual article, we draw on diverse literatures to explore what drives national variations in consulting usage. To achieve this, we develop a basic framework of influencing factors and briefly apply it to the Japanese context. We conclude by explicating how our analysis has a wider application with respect to other knowledge sources in comparative studies.

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