Boundary Spanning

An inductive qualitative study of bicultural immigrants assigned to manage knowledge-intensive projects sourced to their country of origin conducted with Dr. Natalia Levina underscores that collaborative boundary spanning-in-practice arises not merely by collaborators belonging to a common entity (e.g., a cultural group), but rather from how these bicultural individuals navigate the social identity threat that arises from the assignment (Kane & Levina, 2017). Such assignments can help in spanning cultural boundaries, but may have problematic implications for spanning knowledge-based boundaries. This work focuses on actions vis-à-vis global collaborators and unpacks psychological processes involved. Bicultural managers in these positions have to navigate the workplace social identity threat that arises from being associated with the home country group – a lower status group in this context. How they navigate this threat shapes the way they use their bicultural competencies and authority as managers. When they embrace their home country identity, immigrant managers tend to enable knowledge-based boundary spanning through actions empowering home country collaborators, such as teaching missing competencies, connecting to important stakeholders, and soliciting input. Instead, when distancing from their home country identity, they tend to hinder collaborators by micromanaging, narrowing communication channels, and suppressing input. This work suggests that organizations and individual boundary spanners should be reflective in making such assignments, considering the relative status of the groups involved and the psychology of the individuals assigned to span them. 

Along with Dr. Gina Dokko and Dr. Marco Tortoriello, Dr. Kane examines the conditions under which the diverse knowledge provided by boundary-spanning ties to contacts on other work teams within the same organizational division is generative of creative ideas.  Social network analysis of data collected in a R&D division of a global high-technology firm shows that stronger employee identification with the superordinate division enhances creative generativity, whereas stronger team identity renders interactions with colleagues on other work teams less generative of creative ideas, an effect that is attenuated by tie strength (Dokko, Kane, & Tortoriello, 2014). This work highlights that identification at nested organizational levels represent distinct social contexts with a local team identity acting as an impediment and a superordinate identity acting as facilitator. Another project examining boundary spanning and collaboration includes Dr. Theresa Lant and began when Dr. Maritza Salazar was a graduate student at New York University. This field research conducted at a major medical research university examined whether experts choose to participate (or not) in nascent interdisciplinary research teams.  Drawing on insights from group socialization research, this work posits and finds that factors increasing the likelihood of participation include individuals’ distinctive expertise and their boundary spanning collaboration experience (Salazar, Lant, & Kane, 2011). 

References

Dokko, G., Kane, A. A., Tortoriello, M. (2014) One of us or one of my friends: How social identity and tie strength shape the creative generativity of boundary-spanning ties. Organization Studies, 35, 707-726.https:// doi.org/ 10.1177/0170840613508397.

Kane, A. A. & Levina, N. (2017). “Am I still one of them?”: Bicultural immigrant managers navigating social identity threats when spanning global boundaries. Journal of Management Studies, 54, 540-577. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12259. This article appears in the Special Issue: Boundary Spanning in Global Organizations edited by A. Schotter, R. Mudambi, Y. Doz, & A. Guar. Finalist for the 2018 International Human Resource Management Scholarly Research Award, Human Resources Division, Academy of Management.

Salazar, M. R., Lant, T. K., & Kane, A. A. (2011). To join or not to join: An investigation of individual facilitators and inhibitors of medical faculty participation in interdisciplinary research teams. Clinical and Translational Science, 4(4), 274-278. https://doi.org/ 10.1111/j.1752-8062.2011.00321.x

Updated May 2021.