Organizational Boundary Spanning and Brokering as Business Innovation - An Empirical Analysis of a Software Development Company

Boundary-crossing individuals, either called boundary spanners or brokers , are important for facilitating knowledge sharing between internal organizational units and between companies and their external environment. While previous literature recommends strategizing and institutionalizing the use of such boundary-crossing individuals, it gives no specific recommendations or guidelines for how to do so. In this paper, we present findings from an extensive field study in a medium-sized software development company. We present the example of a dedicated organizational unit as a business innovation whose members act as both internal knowledge brokers between units and as boundary spanners between the dynamic, flexible environment and the non-flexible, more static world of the company. We analyze how and why this team became a success within the company, but we also show the downsides and problems related to this strategy and approach

Looking at the past to enrich the future: a reflection on Klein and Myers’ quality criteria for interpretive research

In the last two decades, interpretive research has become more established and more popular in information systems field. The work of Klein and Myers (1999) consists of a set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive research, which provide fair and appropriate criteria for assessing the validity and reliability of such studies and, given the number of citations, has had a significant impact in the interpretive research literature. Our article focuses on understanding how this set of principles has informed research articles published in two of the highest-ranked information systems journals and, specifically, questions if these principles have been translated into common practices when conducting interpretive research in the field of information systems and whether authors incorporate them explicitly when they communicate the results of their research. We reviewed articles published in Management Information Systems Quarterly and Information Systems Research, collected any explicit or implicit evidence of quality criteria that informed the research, and highlighted direct or indirect reference to Klein and Myers criteria. We summarize and compare our findings in a comprehensive table, and note that, apparently, the principle of hermeneutic circle and the principle of suspicion are the most explicitly discussed in this sample. Moreover, Klein and Myers’ set of principles seem to have had a greater influence in the papers published in the period from 2002 to 2006. This study provides a reflexion about methodological rigor in interpretive research that, to our knowledge, had never been done. Thus, the findings here presented may be useful for junior researchers and doctorate level students to understand how validity and quality criteria are enacted in high-quality interpretive research and, we hope, may encourage them to build on the exemplary work of the authors we reviewed and thus to contribute to enriching the literature of qualitative research methodology in information systems field.(undefined

Internal and External Boundary Spanning in Outsourced IS Development Projects: Opening the Black Box

This study applies the boundary spanning theoretical perspective to a client behavior during outsourced IS development projects. Previous research shows the importance of internal communication in an organization when it adopts an integrated IS. It also points to the importance of managing communication with outsourcing vendor. The proposed research makes a unique contribution to the literature by investigating the connection between these two types of communication. The two main questions of the study are how a boundary spanning culture in an organization affects internal and external boundary spanning during an outsourced project, and if a client’s boundary spanning contributes to success of the outsourced project by improving the quality of relationship. Survey based data collection contributes to the methodology of boundary spanning research, which was previously based exclusively on qualitative analysis. Uncovering the implications of client boundary spanning capabilities for outsourcing relationship management will be of significant value for practitioners

Strategic IT Experiments and Organizational Renewal: Getting There Faster By Taking Smaller Steps

The purpose of this paper is to develop practical theory for predicting whether different categories of strategic IT experiments – trials of innovative information technologies within established organizations – lead to varying degrees of organizational renewal. A new framework of categories of strategic IT experiments is developed. We propose that the most innovative strategic IT experiments may have theleast influence on organizational renewal while less innovative experiments have a greater influence. Longitudinal case studies of three organizations illustrate the framework

Manage or Being Managed? Towards a Dual Perspective on Boundary Management in Digital Innovation Teams

To achieve better and faster digital innovations, organizations rely on self-managing teams. Boundary management refers to activities that bridge boundaries between different entities. It can foster the effectiveness of self-managing teams, especially in highly digitized working contexts, since virtual collaboration fosters fluid team boundaries. Prior work considers external leaders as responsible for boundary management. However, the increased relevance of self-managing teams also raises the question of how team members can engage in boundary management and how their behaviors relate to leaders’ behaviors. Conducting a qualitative multiple case study with 27 digital innovation workers from three different industries, we identified four categories of boundary management behaviors that self-managing digital innovation teams engage in: fostering psychological safety, exploring through experimentation, building networks, and acting with autonomy. As we demonstrate, these team behaviors complement existing leader behaviors and suggest a dual perspective of boundary management in digital innovation teams

We All Know How, Don’t We? On the Role of Scrum in IT-Offshoring

Part 2: Creating Value through Software DevelopmentInternational audienceOffshoring in the IT-industry involves dual interactions between a mother company and an external supplier, often viewed with an implicit perspective from the mother company. This article review general off shoring and IT offshoring literature, focusing on the proliferation of a globally available set of routines; Scrum and Agile. Two cases are studied; a small company and short process and a large mother company with a long process. The interactions of the set ups shows that global concepts like Scrum and Agile are far from a common platform. The “well known” concepts are locally shaped and the enterprises have mixed experiences

Exploring cultural boundary spanning functions that bridge across national and cultural boundaries in MNCs

In multinational corporations (MNCs), cross-cultural interactions and collaboration are unavoidable. Cultural boundary spanning (CBS) is a behavior that has been shown to reduce conflict and ensure project success. It is a behavior that bridges internal and external organizational boundaries. This study examined if and how CBS functions (behaviors) change across national and cultural boundaries in MNCs. These boundaries were characterized by four demographic groups of people found within MNCs: (a) parent country nationals, (b) host country nationals, (c) third country nationals, and (d) parent country national expats. The findings of this research suggest that any of these demographic groups can perform CBS. Variances in the use of CBS functions between the groups were also identified. These variances seem to be influenced by the strength of the individual’s social networks and the interdependent leadership culture within the MNC

How does PLM enhance international inter organizational new product development? Knowledge transfer and translation with boundary spanners

An important question for IS researchers and practitioners is how IT can improve new product development (NPD) in the context of inter organizational development. More precisely, this paper aims at understanding how Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) technology contributes to NPD knowledge integration in this environment. It is based on a longitudinal case study of a French industrial Group with design teams located in Europe, which had greatly increased development work with China at the time of the study. The first author participated in PLM implementations in Asia over the course of four years. Data analyses indicate a reduction of communication problems, from which we infer a positive contribution of PLM to knowledge transfer and knowledge translation. PLM reinforces the role of outsourced Chinese engineers who act as a boundary spanner with Chinese suppliers