1. BOUNDARY SPANNING AND TEAM LEADERSHIP
CHAPTER NINE
BOUNDARY SPANNING
AND TEAM
LEADERSHIP
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2. Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
Describe boundary-spanning leader behaviors and provide specific examples of these behaviors.
Explain why boundary-spanning behaviors can have positive effects on followers.
Describe skills, abilities, and sources of power leaders need to be effective at boundary-spanning.
Describe the individual and organizational benefits that can result from effective boundary spanning behaviors.
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3. Learning Objectives (cont.)
After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
Describe an approach to negotiation that will maximize benefits for all parties
Describe team leadership as an important role that requires effective boundary-spanning and other leader behaviors.
Identify follower, organizational, and task characteristics for which boundary-spanning leader behaviors would be highly effective and where they would not be effective.
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4. Boundary Spanning Leadership
Leader actions that establish and maintain a group’s integrity through negotiating with nongroup members, resolving disputes among followers and subgroups, obtaining resources, establishing influence networks, and helping followers deal with the external environment.
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5. Examples of Boundary Spanning Leadership Behaviors
Defining and modifying organizational or unit boundaries so members know who is and who is not a member.
Protecting and representing the group while resisting unreasonable demands and responding to outside influence.
Managing interactions between leaders and followers, among followers themselves, and among subgroups within the leader’s unit, including helping to resolve stalemates and conflicts.
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6. Examples of Boundary Spanning Leadership Behaviors (cont.)
Negotiating with upper management and other outsiders to obtain resources for the unit and to arrange for distribution of the unit’s output.
Identifying and describing for group members what they should attend to in the environment and what they should ignore to help them make sense of developments which may affect them (otherwise known as frame alignment).
Obtaining, filtering and storing valuable information from the unit’s environment; putting the information into a useful form; and disseminating it to unit members.
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7. Boundary Spanning Leader Behaviors
Respond to
external demands &
influences
Define &
manipulate unit
boundaries
Obtain resources &
distribute outputs
Boundary Spanning
Leader Behaviors
Resolve stalemates
& conflicts
Develop &
maintain networks
Sensitize unit
members to
environmental issues
Obtain, filter, store &
disseminate
information
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8. Key Leadership Roles Which Managers Play That Involve Some Sort of Boundary Spanning
Figurehead—performing symbolic acts such as representing the organization at social gatherings.
Liaison—forming and maintaining networks outside the unit including making new contacts, keeping in touch with important outsider, and doing favors.
Monitoring—obtaining information from outside the leader’s unit which may help the overall unit’s performance.
Disseminator—passing information on to insiders or to subunits about other subunits.
Spokesperson—transmitting information and expressing value statements to outsiders.
Disturbance handler—dealing with conflicts among subordinates or subunits, loss of subordinates, strikes, and other “crisis situations.”
Negotiator—bargaining for the unit in dealing with others over resources and constraints; buffering the unit and its members from higher ups and outsiders.
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9. Skills and Power Sources for Boundary Spanning Leadership
Story telling &
slogan creation skills
Political &
negotiation skills
Communication
skills
Conflict management
skills
Skills and Power
Sources for Boundary
Spanning Leadership
Connection/
resource power
Reward &
coercive power
Expert power
Referent power
Legitimate
power
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10. Guidelines for Negotiating
Separate the People from the Problem
Focus on Interests, Not Positions
Invent Options for Mutual Gain
Insist on Using Objective Criteria
Know Your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)
Preparation is the Key
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11. Situational and Follower Characteristics that Affect the Impact of Boundary Spanning Leadership
Enhancers of
Boundary-Spanning
Environmental uncertainty versus predictability
Task uncertainty & difficulty
Centrality of leader’s unit
Leader’s experience and familiarity with organizational operations
Leader’s extensive internal & external networks
Team-based organization structure
Neutralizers of
Boundary Spanning
Older followers with many years of service
Followers with high rank
Substitutes for
Boundary Spanning
Numerous formal organizational procedures
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12. Creating Team-Based Replacements for Leadership
Developing leadership replacements involves teaching and coaching the team and its members in several skills of self-leadership, including:
Self-observation
Self-goal setting
Antecedent modification
Self-reward and punishment
Rehearsal
Strategic planning
Learning to avoid groupthink
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13. Summary: When Is Boundary Spanning Needed?
When an organization is composed of work teams that operate with some independence from higher management, boundary spanning will be especially important.
This is a very common situation in today’s organizations, making boundary spanning an important type of leader behavior
Leaders may be especially effective at boundary spanning when they are good communicators, assertive, knowledgeable and experienced in organizational operations, and have many connections outside their group or department.
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14. Process Model of Boundary-Spanning Leadership
SITUATIONAL
FACTORS INCREASING
LEADER
EFFECTIVENESS
Enhancers
Environmental uncertainty versus predictability
Task uncertainty and difficulty
Centrality of leader’s unit
Leader’s experience and familiarity with organizational operations
Leader’s extensive internal and external networks
Team-based organization structure
BOUNDARY-SPANNING LEADER BEHAVIORS
Defining and manipulating unit boundaries
Representing the unit in response to external demands and influence
Negotiating to obtain resources and distribute the unit’s output
Resolving stalemates and conflicts within the unit and with other units
Sensitizing unit members to key environmental issues
Developing and maintaining networks
Obtaining, filtering, storing, and disseminating information
SITUATIONAL FACTORS
DECREASING LEADER
EFFECTIVENESS
Neutralizers
Followers who are older or highly experienced
Followers with high rank
FOLLOWER/GROUP PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTIONS
High job satisfaction*
Better morale*
High confidence in leader*
* These psychological reactions and outcomes have shown the strongest improvement from leader’s boundary-spanning.
FOLLOWER BEHAVIORS AND OUTCOMES
High performance evaluations*
Effective performance
Lower turnover rates
Higher promotion rates
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15. Applying the Model of Boundary Spanning Leadership
1. DIAGNOSING THE SITUATION
Is the leader’s environment uncertain, or can it be manipulated?
Are followers’ work tasks highly uncertain, difficult, or conflict-prone?
Is the leader’s group central to the overall organization’s success?
Is the leader responsible for one or more self-managed teams?
Does the leader have important connections that can benefit the group?
If “yes” to one or more of these questions, followers will probably respond favorably to boundary spanning leadership.
3. MODIFYING FOLLOWERS
AND/OR SITUATIONS
2. PROVIDING BOUNDARY SPANNING LEADERSHIP
Leaders act to:
Build procedures that allow followers to obtain resources & solve problems on their own
Place followers who are older, experienced, and high status into boundary spanning positions
Create self-leadership capabilities in the leader’s group through training and development
Leader demonstrates boundary spanning by:
Manipulating and protecting group boundaries to resist jolts from the environment
Interacting with outsiders to obtain resources and develop agreements that help the group
Managing interactions among followers to resolve conflicts & overcome difficulties
Obtaining, filtering, storing & disseminating valuable information for the group’s benefit
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