Boundary Spanning in Interorganizational Collaboration

Building Information Modeling (BIM) enables project participants to perform more efficiently and effectively. Recently, many studies have reported the rapid growth of application of the use of BIM system in global construction industry used by Architects, Engineers and Contractors and clients etc. Many users report benefits of using BIM including more accurate information, less re-work, reduced construction time, fewer claims and better project performance. Those reported benefits have stimulated more acceptances of BIM and rapid adoption worldwide in past five years. As adoption increases and BIM becomes more pervasive in the construction industry in Hong Kong, clients and forefront users of such technology begin to question the effectiveness of BIM implementation. Firms that have adopted BIM invest an extensive amount of money and time in training professionals, but they barely enjoy the real benefits from BIM adoption. Construction is a project-based activity, wherein different disciplines work collaboratively to achieve the project goal. Effective collaboration and coordination among all project participants is essential to achieve the full advantages of BIM. Thus encouraging different disciplines (architect, engineer, surveyor, contractor, etc.) to collaborate in BIM-enabled construction projects is critical for optimizing BIM adoption and improving project performances. A project team constitutes professionals from different organizations (e.g. architectural, engineering, and construction). It is important for the project participants to work closely together to share their information, coordinate working flows, jointly make decision, achieve inter-organizational collaboration, and deliver projects effectively and efficiently. This study aims to explore and investigate factors affecting multi-discipline collaboration in BIM-enabled construction teams in Hong Kong.
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\nSocio-technical Theory is employed as theoretical lens to construct a conceptual research framework. To further develop a validated research model, a two-stage research design is adopted including an exploratory study and an explanatory study. The exploratory study uses semi-structured interviews to confirm factors identified from existing literatures as well as to explore any new important factors from empirical context. The exploratory study validates the finalized research model by content analysis of qualitative data. In the explanatory study, a quantitative research method is adopted. A questionnaire survey is conducted and a total of 249 responses are collected for data analysis. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied to test the finalized research model and postulated hypotheses.
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\nThe research findings and results confirm that common understanding, trust and joint decision-making significantly determine the collaborative team environment. Such collaborative team environment in turn influences inter-organizational BIM collaboration. Research results also reveal that collaboration experiences among project participants impose significant positive influence on interoperability. Research findings also confirm that continuous training is a critical support factor to BIM collaboration. BIM acceptance is found to be the most significant predictor to BIM collaboration. Moreover, BIM collaboration is proved to be important to project success and BIM success. Besides, research also finds that different professionals have significant differences in BIM collaboration. Professionals with more BIM experiences tend to act more collaboratively in the project. In addition, early involvement of project participants also imposes a positive impact on BIM collaboration.
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\nThis study provides an integrated view on inter-organizational collaboration in BIM-enabled construction projects in Hong Kong, and addresses the social, technological and process factors associated with effective inter-organizational collaboration. A triangulated research method is employed. Some new measurement scales and factors are developed specifically for BIM-enabled construction projects. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the significant factors that affect the collaborative adoption of BIM in the construction industry in Hong Kong. Such findings are useful and valuable to practitioners to improve the effectiveness of BIM adoption in construction projects.

BackgroundThe success of eHealth relies on interorganizational collaboration (IOC) throughout the development, evaluation, and implementation phases of eHealth deployment. This IOC is complex, as it involves a diversity of organizations from different sectors, such as technological, academic, health care, and governmental organizations, collaborating to deploy eHealth. Between these organizations, organizational boundaries, defined as the demarcation of an organization from its environment, arise. When these boundaries are perceived as aligned and enable complementarity, IOC is facilitated. By contrast, misalignment of organizational boundaries can hinder IOC. A dialogical learning mechanism, defined as a learning process that occurs when boundaries hinder IOC, can support learning how to navigate such boundaries. However, it is difficult to determine whether and when organizational boundaries facilitate or hinder IOC, and which dialogical learning mechanisms can be used to address these challenges during eHealth deployment. Previous literature presents the barriers and facilitators of IOC during eHealth deployment only for subsets of organizations or specific phases, leaving their generic versus phase specific applicability uncharted.ObjectiveThis scoping review aims to identify whether, and under what circumstances, organizational boundaries facilitate or hinder IOC during the development, evaluation, and implementation of eHealth.MethodsA scoping review was conducted using searches in the PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases. Articles were eligible for inclusion if they were empirical studies written in English or Dutch and contained findings on factors influencing IOC during the development, evaluation, or implementation phases of eHealth deployment. The search yielded 11,867 articles, of which 16 met the inclusion criteria. Open and axial coding of the extracted findings was performed to identify organizational boundaries and dialogical learning mechanisms that hindered or facilitated IOC during eHealth deployment.ResultsIn each phase, different organizational boundaries either hindered or facilitated IOC. The dialogical learning mechanism identification was crucial for enhancing IOC and was supported by training or by establishing IOC from previous relationships. Additionally, the learning mechanism coordination improved IOC and depended on the involvement of boundary spanners (ie, individuals who span organizational boundaries) and the use of boundary objects (ie, objects which help bridge different social worlds). Furthermore, the mechanism reflection, fostered through open and frequent communication, facilitated IOC. The dialogical learning mechanism transformation did not influence IOC during any phase of eHealth deployment.ConclusionsIOC in eHealth deployment is a dynamic process that depends on the dialogical learning mechanisms identification, coordination, and reflection to navigate organizational boundaries. This review is the first to present organizational boundaries and dialogical learning mechanisms that influence IOC across the different phases of eHealth deployment. However, further research that explicitly considers these phases is needed to deepen the understanding of IOC in eHealth deployment.

BackgroundThe visions of more integrated care have created new roles and accountabilities for organizations and professionals. Thus, professionals are increasingly expected to engage in boundary spanning activities in order to facilitate inter-organizational and inter-sectoral collaboration. However, this task can be difficult for individual actors and it is important to investigate the work and challenges of boundary spanners in various settings. This study explores the challenges related to a new boundary spanning role for general practitioners employed to facilitate collaboration between the municipalities and general practice.MethodsThe study is based on semi-structured interviews with ten general practitioners acting as municipal practice consultants in the Capital Region of Denmark. The transcribed interviews were analyzed in several steps organizing the material into a set of coherent and distinct categories covering the different types of challenges experienced by the informants.ResultsThe main challenges of the general practitioners acting as boundary spanners were: 1) defining and negotiating the role in terms of tasks and competencies; 2) representing and mobilizing colleagues in general practice; 3) navigating in an unfamiliar organizational context.ConclusionsThe results support previous studies in emphasizing the difficult and multifaceted character of the boundary spanning role. While some of these challenges are not easily dealt with due to their structural causes, organizations employing boundary spanners should take note of these challenges and support their boundary spanners with matching resources and competencies.

Interorganizationalcollaboration (i.e., organizations working together towards one goal) is one approach that can be used by community-based organizations to ensure marginalized individuals receive needed care. Though there has been some research on the mechanisms of collaboration from the perspective of leadership, less literature has focused on the perspective of staff working in community-based settings. The study aimed to explore staff perceptions of interorganizational collaboration within a North Carolina county and to gather their recommendations for strengthening such collaboration. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty community-based staff that worked with behavioral health clients, were employed in varying roles and occupied different levels of the organization. Employing a generic qualitative methodology, data were analyzed using an inductive coding approach with the help of a research assistant. Thematic analysis was used across codes to generate seven themes. Community-based staff viewed collaboration as primarily driven by historic relationships and being facilitated by the possession of similar technological infrastructure. Staff reflected on the disconnect between interpersonal relationships and organizational relationships when it came to prioritizing client care. Solutions to improving collaboration as a way of strengthening a client's access to care included organizations providing time and space to network, building out technological infrastructure for more organizations, and emphasizing the ability to provide holistic care through collaboration. Using staff-driven solutions to improving collaboration can encourage buy-in and can build sustainable relationships.

The literature on interorganizational relationships has explored them at the organizational level and ignored interpersonal relationships. This paper consists of a literature review analyzing, consolidating, and synthesizing studies on boundary spanners in business–to–business (B2B) interorganizational relationships, pointing out directions for future research. The review was carried out in ten steps, separated into three phases encompassing planning, collecting, and synthesizing data, and disclosing the results. The study assesses 3,156 published articles, and 45 of them addressed the theme of boundary spanners in B2B interorganizational relationships. These articles were analyzed, identifying their characteristics and the evolution of research through time. The definitions of interpersonal and interorganizational relationships were compared, observing how the literature has addressed the interdependency between these relationships. Also, the concepts and roles assigned to boundary spanners were analyzed, leading to an integrated framework of the existing literature on the theme. Finally, suggestions for future research are presented, followed by this review’s implications and limitations.

Objective: To investigate, through scientific literary findings, the effects of occupational stress on interpersonal relationships in the work environment. Methodology: This is an integrative literature review, with a descriptive and qualitative approach, carried out through a survey in the Scielo, Pubmed and Lilacs databases, with the words indexed in the DeCs: Psychology, Occupational Stress and Burnout Syndrome. As well as the Boolean operator ‘’AND’’ to perform the crossing between the descriptors. Articles related to the proposed theme, published between the years 2016 to 2021, available in full, with no language restriction; in addition to theses, dissertations and monographs. Results and discussions: The findings of the scientific literature exposed in this research could show that occupational stress has a total impact on interpersonal relationships and on emotional exhaustion, constituting a network conducive to the emergence and development of Burnout syndrome. Final considerations: The research included in this study could unanimously prove that occupational stress leads to a decline in interpersonal and organizational relationships, which directly compromises the mental health of professionals, generating a risk of harm to the health of the worker, with the syndrome of Burnout is the most prevalent pathology in this context.

Integrating boundary spanning and organizational identification theories, we posit that a boundary spanner’s organizational identification (i.e., the sense of oneness with an organization) is an important factor shaping inter-organizational relationships. We examined CEOs of international joint ventures (IJVs) as the boundary spanners in the Asia Pacific region by sampling 185 China-based IJVs. We found that organizational identification of an IJV’s CEO with a parent firm is positively related to cooperation between the venture and that parent, and this relationship is stronger when the level of goal differences between parents is higher. The cooperation between the foreign (but not local) parent and the IJV is in turn positively related to the IJV’s performance. This study extends extant research by revealing the role of a boundary spanner’s organizational identification in inter-organizational collaboration as well as inter-firm goal differences as a boundary condition for this role.

Despite the enthusiasm for engaging in interorganizational collaboration to enable digital product innovation, firms often face challenges in integrating knowledge across organizational boundaries. Our research examines how collaborating firms use Interorganizational Systems (IOS) tools and project coordinators to overcome knowledge boundaries in different types of ideation tasks. Drawing on boundary-spanning theory, we conceptualize IOS tools as boundary objects, project coordinators as boundary spanners, and the interdependence of ideation tasks as moderators of the impacts of boundary objects and spanners on knowledge integration. Our findings suggest that IOS tools help overcome syntax and semantic knowledge boundaries by transferring and sharing information when the interdependence of idea implementation tasks is high, and project coordinators help overcome pragmatic knowledge boundaries by building reciprocity of innovation participants when the interdependence of idea generation tasks is high. Our research contributes to value co-creation literature by developing a boundary-spanning mechanism to explain the roles of boundary objects and boundary spanners in overcoming different knowledge boundaries to enable digital product innovation at the inter-firm level.

Guanxi orientation is one of the important organizational values in China. This study examines the effect of guanxi orientation on firm’s boundary spanner’s behavior (manifested by interpersonal liking and interaction frequency) and its influence on inter-firm relationships in Chinese marketing channel context. Drawing on organizational culture and boundary spanner theory, a conceptual model is proposed to delineate how guanxi orientation works across organizations where inter-firm support is placed as the key mediator. Results from 342 distributors show that guanxi orientation has positive influence on interpersonal liking and interaction frequency between boundary spanners, and the manifested behaviors have direct and indirect impact on inter-firm relationship quality through inter-firm support. Overall, the study research extended the extant literature from three perspectives. Firstly, this study deepens our understanding of the organizational role of guanxi orientation and its influence on boundary spanner’s individual behaviors, building a bridge between intra- and inter-firm relationships. Secondly, the research findings suggest that boundary spanners can provide inter-firm support for building cooperative relationship channels. Thirdly, inter-firm support is found to be another antecedent of long-term orientation (previously trust, dependence, and performance), which provides a cost-effective way for building deeper relationship. Contributions, managerial implications, limitations, and future research are also pointed out. Key words: Guanxi orientation, boundary spanner behaviors, inter-firms relationship quality.

Studies suggest that the termination of the interpersonal relationship between boundary spanners at buyer and seller firms can have a damaging effect on the inter organisational relationship. Few studies have addressed this issue in detail, but those that do, advise supplier firms to implement strategies such as service teams and boundary spanner rotation to lessen the negative effects of boundary spanner turnover. By creating multiple bonds between the two firms, dispersing client-specific knowledge widely throughout the supplier firm, and preventing the development of a close bond between buyer and seller boundary spanners, individual interpersonal relationships become less important. However, a review of relationship literature on trust, commitment, social bonds, and knowledge suggests the potential for negative outcomes from the implementation of the strategies. Using case studies and one-to-one interviews with design buyers and their agencies, this paper explores the outcomes of the two strategies, and the contexts in which these outcomes occur. Adopting a critical realist approach, findings are presented in the form of context–mechanism–outcome models. Agency size, agency culture, client experience, and boundary-spanner autonomy are amongst the contexts that influence the outcome of strategy implementation.

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to evidently examine how employee cynicism mediates the relationship between co-worker relationship and employee turnover intentions in organizations in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachUsing a cross-sectional survey of employees from both public and private organizations, the authors tested our hypotheses with a sample of 288 employees by means of structural equation modelling (SEM) using maximum likelihood estimation with LISREL 9.2 and bootstrapping procedures.FindingsFindings showed that co-worker relationship is negatively associated with employee cynicism. The findings further revealed that employee cynicism is positively associated with employees' intention to leave. Additionally, employee cynicism negatively mediated the relationship between co-worker relationship and employee intention to leave their organizations.Practical implicationsThe work recommends that organizations become aware of employee cynicism which can adversely affects co-worker relationship and consequently organizational performance. Therefore, organizations ought to reduce employee cynicism and rather encourage positive co-worker relations through interpersonal relationship and support for employees.Originality/valueAn investigation of co-worker relationship in organization and employee intentions to leave or turnover is a significant micro-level analysis for contemporary Human Resource Management (HRM) research. This study gives us a scarce opportunity to understand how employee cynicism negatively mediates the relationship between co-worker relationship and turnover intentions of employees.

Previous research on inter-organizational collaboration has typically focused on firm-level variables. The purpose of this article is to investigate how key contact employees (KCEs) play a role in facilitating collaboration between firms. Although logistics and supply chain research in this area remains scarce, relevant theories and findings across managerial disciplines are synthesized to develop a better understanding of how interpersonal (micro-level) factors may lead to inter-organizational (macro-level) outcomes. Based on a review of the empirical literature, several gaps and opportunities are uncovered. The resulting research agenda should be particularly valuable for supply chain researchers interested in the impact of social and human factors in inter- organizational relationships.

In this review, we attempt to make sense of the broad, complex, fascinating yet incomplete literatures that implicate interpersonal relationships in organizations by focusing on how relationships are treated and what relationships do for organizations and the people therein. We leverage the existing literature to push the study of interpersonal relationships in organizations in three ways. First, we conceptualize relationships in ways that are deeper than are typically studied, in terms of the nature of interpersonal bonds, the trajectory of relationships, and how relationships are measured. Second, we build on multilevel research that demonstrates how (top-down) organization-level processes and relational systems impact dyadic relationships and associated outcomes, and how (bottom-up) those same relationships implicate organizational processes and outcomes. Third, we describe the potential of viewing relationships not just as pipes for the direct transmission of knowledge and socioemotional support but as prisms for studying indirect processes of attention and interpretation.

Introduction:Inter-organisational collaboration is crucial in the care of older people, as is the development of integrated care. Storytelling in organisations is one way of understanding how to achieve successful collaboration. This article provides insights into the ways in which storytelling in collaborative experiences contributes to a collective identity instrumental in the successful collaborations involved in integrated care for older people.Theory:Managing cultural diversity is one specific theme in the theory of collaborative advantage; this is used in combination with theories of storytelling in organisations.Method:Interviews with staff from three different municipalities applying three various strategies for integrated care were carried out. Stories of the collaborative experiences were analysed using a narrative approach.Results:The most significant finding was that a similar type of success story was evident across all three municipalities. The story was identified as an epic-comedy story where success was accomplished through the heroic characterisations of the managers, in addition to their improvisation abilities and discretionary work towards common goals.Conclusion:It is suggested that storytelling in collaborative experiences is one way of overcoming cultural frictions between different collaborating actors and may contribute to a coherent sense of a collective identity, thus facilitating further collaboration.

This study examines the cognitive antecedent (guanxi orientation) of firm's boundary spanner's behavior and its influence on inter-firm relationships in marketing channel context of China. Drawing on organizational culture and boundary spanner theory, the results from 342 manufacturer-distributor dyads show that guanxi orientation influence the behaviors of boundary spanner cognitively, and then interpersonal liking and interaction frequency between boundary spanners have different impact on inter-firm relationship quality through distributor's support. Between two kinds of manifestations of boundary spanner's behaviors, only interpersonal liking is positively related to distributor's support and then improve inter-firm relationship. Moreover, we extend the model to manufacturer sample but found that the effect of guanxi orientation is significant only in distributor sample, indicating that manufacturer and distributor may pay emphasis on other organizational values. Managerial implications and future res...