Leicht-Deobald Ulrich, Backmann Julia, de Vries Thomas A, Weiss Matthias, Hohmann Sebastian, Walter Frank, van der Vegt Gerben S, Hoegl Martin
Trinity College Dublin and University of St.Gallen.
University of Münster.
J Manage. 2025 Feb;51(2):704-747. doi: 10.1177/01492063231206107. Epub 2023 Nov 19.
Research suggests that teams can greatly enhance their performance through boundary management, which comprises activities that establish, maintain, and regulate linkages with the surrounding environment. However, such performance gains do not materialize equally in all instances, and some teams struggle to benefit from boundary management. Integrating insights from social network and team-level resource allocation theories, we develop a contingency framework that considers the internal organization of a team's boundary management (i.e., the carrier, target, and type of such activities) as a key moderating factor that accounts for the varying effects. To test this framework, we use a meta-analytic approach that synthesizes >30 years of empirical research (i.e., 85 primary studies covering 10,848 teams). Our results show a positive main effect of team boundary management on team performance. Crucially, these performance benefits are more pronounced when the target of boundary management is extraorganizational rather than inside the home organization and when the type of boundary management activities is boundary spanning (e.g., coordination, representation, or information search) rather than boundary strengthening (e.g., buffering, guarding, or sentry activities). Moreover, boundary management is more effective when executed by formal team leaders rather than team members, and our results tentatively suggest that this may reflect differences in effectiveness between leaders and members in boundary strengthening, rather than boundary spanning. Overall, our findings advance theory on team boundary management by clarifying previously ambiguous findings and illustrating how teams can design their boundary management activities to be most effective.
研究表明，团队可以通过边界管理极大地提升其绩效，边界管理包括与周围环境建立、维持和调节联系的活动。然而，这种绩效提升并非在所有情况下都能同等实现，一些团队难以从边界管理中受益。整合社会网络和团队层面资源分配理论的见解，我们构建了一个权变框架，将团队边界管理的内部组织（即此类活动的载体、目标和类型）视为一个关键调节因素，以解释不同的效果。为了验证这个框架，我们采用了一种元分析方法，综合了30多年的实证研究（即85项涵盖10848个团队的初步研究）。我们的结果显示团队边界管理对团队绩效有积极的主效应。至关重要的是，当边界管理的目标是组织外部而非本组织内部，且边界管理活动的类型是边界跨越（如协调、代表或信息搜索）而非边界强化（如缓冲、守护或哨兵活动）时，这些绩效收益更为显著。此外，由正式团队领导者而非团队成员执行边界管理时更有效，我们的结果初步表明，这可能反映了领导者和成员在边界强化而非边界跨越方面的有效性差异。总体而言，我们的研究结果通过澄清先前模糊的发现，并说明团队如何设计其边界管理活动以达到最有效的效果，推进了团队边界管理理论。
