Abstract
Growing interdependencies and cross-boundary collaborations are key characteristics of contemporary public sector. In the field of public management and governance, we therefore see an increasing interest in research and practice in boundary spanning behavior in order to align people, organizations, and processes. However, practicing boundary spanning behavior is not straightforward; it demands certain skills, traits, and experiences of competent public servants working in collaborative and interorganizational settings. These so-called boundary spanning competencies are fragmentedly discussed in the literature. What do future public servants need to learn and to master in this respect? To what extent can they be trained in being competent boundary spanning public servants? Or must a boundary spanner have a certain personality? Or does boundary spanning come with years of experience? This chapter goes deeper into these questions and provides an overview of different boundary spanning competencies. First, different types of boundary spanning activities are discussed. Next, a discussion and review of relevant boundary spanning competencies will follow. Subsequently, it is discussed to what extent these competencies and characteristics can actually be trained and what might be educational methods in this.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adler, T., J.A. Black, and J.P. Loveland. 2003. Complex systems: Boundary-spanning training techniques. Journal of European Industrial Training 27 (2/3/4): 111–124.
Aldrich, H., and D. Herker. 1977. Boundary spanning roles and organization structure. Academy of Management Review 2 (2): 217–230.
Ancona, D.G., and D.F. Caldwell. 1992. Bridging the boundary: External activity and performance in organizational teams. Administrative Science Quarterly 37: 634–665.
Au, K.Y., and J. Fukuda. 2002. Boundary spanning behaviors of expatriates. Journal of World Business 37 (4): 285–296.
Bandura, A. 1977. Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Birkinshaw, J., T.C. Ambos, and C. Bouquet. 2017. Boundary spanning activities of corporate HQ executives insights from a longitudinal study. Journal of Management Studies 54 (4): 422–454.
Boyatzis, R.E. 1982. The competent managers: A model for effective performance. New York: Wiley-Interscience.
Carlile, P.R. 2002. A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: Boundary objects in new product development. Organization Science 13 (4): 442–455.
Church, A.H. 1997. Managerial self-awareness in high-performing individuals in organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology 82 (2): 281.
Davis, M.H. 1983. Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44 (1): 113.
Davis, C.M. 1990. What is empathy, and can empathy be taught? Physical Therapy 70 (11): 707–711.
Dollinger, M.J. 1984. Environmental boundary spanning and information processing effects on organizational performance. Academy of Management Journal 27 (2): 351–368.
Fennell, M.L., and J.A. Alexander. 1987. Organizational boundary spanning in institutionalized environments. Academy of Management Journal 30 (3): 456–476.
Ferguson, R.J., M. Paulin, and J. Bergeron. 2005. Contractual governance, relational governance, and the performance of interfirm service exchanges: The influence of boundary-spanner closeness. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 33 (2): 217–234.
Firestone, W.A., and J.L. Fisler. 2002. Politics, community, and leadership in a school-university partnership. Educational Administration Quarterly 38 (4): 449–493.
Gangestad, S.W., and M. Snyder. 2000. Self-monitoring: Appraisal and reappraisal. Psychological Bulletin 126 (4): 530–555.
Getha-Taylor, H. 2008. Identifying collaborative competencies. Review of Public Personnel Administration 28 (2): 103–119.
Goleman, D. 1998. What makes a leader. Harvard Business Review 76 (6): 93–103.
Gross, M.A., and L.K. Guerrero. 2000. Managing conflict appropriately and effectively: An application of the competence model to Rahim's organizational conflict styles. International Journal of Conflict Management 11(3):200–226.
Haytko, D.L. 2004. Firm-to-firm and interpersonal relationships: Perspectives from advertising agency account managers. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 32 (3): 312–328.
Jaeger, A.J. 2003. Job competencies and the curriculum: An inquiry into emotional intelligence in graduate professional education. Research in Higher Education 44 (6): 615–639.
Klijn, E.H., and J.F.M. Koppenjan. 2016. Governance networks in the public sector. London: Routledge.
Marrone, J.A., P.E. Tesluk, and J.B. Carson. 2007. A multilevel investigation of antecedents and consequences of team member boundary-spanning behavior. Academy of Management Journal 50 (6): 1423–1439.
McCroskey, J.C., and L. McCroskey. 1988. Self-report as an approach to measuring communication competence. Communication Research Reports 5: 106–113.
McGuire, M. 2006. Collaborative public management: Assessing what we know and how we know it. Public Administration Review 66 (s1): 33–43.
Mehra, A., and M.T. Schenkel. 2008. The Price Chameleons Pay: Self-monitoring, boundary spanning and role conflict in the workplace. British Journal of Management 19 (2): 138–144.
Miller, P.M. 2008. Examining the work of boundary spanning leaders in community contexts. International Journal of Leadership in Education 11 (4): 353–377.
Nelis, D., J. Quoidbach, M. Mikolajczak, and M. Hansenne. 2009. Increasing emotional intelligence: (How) is it possible? Personality and Individual Differences 47 (1): 36–41.
O’Flynn, J., D. Blackman, and J. Halligan, eds. 2014. Crossing boundaries in public management and policy: The international experience. London: Routledge.
Peng, W., M. Lee, and C. Heeter. 2010. The effects of a serious game on role-taking and willingness to help. Journal of Communication 60 (4): 723–742.
Pruitt, D.G., and J.Z. Rubin. 1986. Social conflict: Escalation, impasse, and resolution. Reding, MA: Addision-Wesley.
Quick, K.S., and M.S. Feldman. 2014. Boundaries as junctures: Collaborative boundary work for building efficient resilience. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 24 (3): 673–695.
Riess, H., J.M. Kelley, R.W. Bailey, E.J. Dunn, and M. Phillips. 2012. Empathy training for resident physicians: A randomized controlled trial of a neuroscience-informed curriculum. Journal of General Internal Medicine 27 (10): 1280–1286.
Rotenberg, M. 1974. Conceptual and methodological notes on affective and cognitive role taking (sympathy and empathy): An illustrative experiment with delinquent and nondelinquent boys. The Journal of Genetic Psychology 125 (1): 177–185.
Ruble, T.L., and K.W. Thomas. 1976. Support for a two-dimensional model of conflict behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 16 (1): 143–155.
Salovey, P., and J.D. Mayer. 1990. Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality 9 (3): 185–211.
Schein, E.H. 1978. Career dynamics: Matching individual and organizational needs. Reading: Addison Wesley.
Selman, R.L. 1971. The relation of role taking to the development of moral judgment in children. Child Development 42: 79–91.
Snyder, M. 1979. Self-monitoring processes. In Advances in experimental social psychology, ed. L. Berkowitz, vol. 12, 85–128. New York: Academic.
Suter, E., J. Arndt, N. Arthur, J. Parboosingh, E. Taylor, and S. Deutschlander. 2009. Role understanding and effective communication as core competencies for collaborative practice. Journal of Interprofessional Care 23 (1): 41–51.
Sweeney, L.B., and D. Meadows. 2010. The systems thinking playbook: Exercises to stretch and build learning and systems thinking capabilities. Chelsea: Chelsea Green Publishing.
Thomas, K.W. 1976. Conflict and conflict management. In Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, ed. M.D. Dunnette, 889–935. Chicago: Rand McNally.
Torfing, J., B.G. Peters, J. Pierre, and E. Sørensen. 2012. Interactive governance. Advancing the paradigm. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tushman, M.L., and T.J. Scanlan. 1981. Characteristics and external orientations of boundary spanning individuals. Academy of Management Journal 24 (1): 83–98.
Van Meerkerk, I., and J. Edelenbos. 2014. The effects of boundary spanners on trust and performance of urban governance networks: Findings from survey research on urban development projects in the Netherlands. Policy Sciences 47 (1): 3–24.
———. 2018. Boundary spanners in public management and governance: An interdisciplinary assessment. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Voorberg, W.H., V.J. Bekkers and L.G. Tummers. 2015. A systematic review of co-creation and co-production: Embarking on the social innovation journey. Public Management Review 17 (9): 1333–1357.
Weerts, D.J., and L.R. Sandmann. 2010. Community engagement and boundary-spanning roles at research universities. The Journal of Higher Education 81 (6): 632–657.
Williams, P. 2002. The competent boundary spanner. Public Administration 80 (1): 103–124.
Williams, H.W. 2008. Characteristics that distinguish outstanding urban principals: Emotional intelligence, social intelligence and environmental adaptation. Journal of Management Development 27 (1): 36–54.
Williams, P. 2012. Collaboration in public policy and practice: Perspectives on boundary spanners. Bristol: Policy Press.
Woodruffe, C. 1993. What is meant by a competency?. Leadership & Organization Development Journal 14 (1): 29–36.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
van Meerkerk, I., Edelenbos, J. (2021). Becoming a Competent Boundary Spanning Public Servant. In: Sullivan, H., Dickinson, H., Henderson, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29980-4_39
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29980-4_39
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-29979-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-29980-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences