Search results

1 – 10 of over 45000
Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 January 2022

Carla Oonk, Judith Gulikers, Perry den Brok and Martin Mulder

Sustainable development requires multiple stakeholders to work and learn across practices, in other words, it requires boundary crossing competence. To prepare students for their…

2986

Abstract

Purpose

Sustainable development requires multiple stakeholders to work and learn across practices, in other words, it requires boundary crossing competence. To prepare students for their future sustainability professions, higher education should facilitate the development of boundary crossing competence in its curricula. This study aims to confirm whether boundary crossing learning can be stimulated by workshop-based support in multi-stakeholder projects.

Design/methodology/approach

This quasi-experimental intervention study (N = 122) investigates the effect of a series of supporting workshops on students’ boundary crossing learning in multi-stakeholder projects. The workshops allowed students to adopt four learning mechanisms (identification, coordination, reflection and transformation) theorised to stimulate learning across boundaries between practices. Students followed zero, one, or two workshops. By analysing the student learning reports, the study examines the effect of the workshop intervention on students’ self-efficacy for stakeholder collaboration, the number of reported student-stakeholder collaborative activities and the reported boundary crossing learning mechanisms.

Findings

The results show that a series of two workshops increase the number of reported collaborative activities and activates the students’ boundary crossing learning in terms of reflection and transformation.

Research limitations/implications

These findings support the evidence-based design of multi-stakeholder learning environments for sustainable development and contribute to the body of knowledge regarding learning across practices.

Originality/value

Boundary crossing competence receives increasing attention as an asset for sustainable development. The added value of this study lies in its confirmation that the boundary crossing theory can be translated into directed educational support that can stimulate students’ boundary crossing learning.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 23 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2020

Shahar Gindi, Yitzhak Gilat and Rachel Sagee

Minority teachers is a growing phenomenon that is encouraged as part of a quest to diversify teaching staff. Among minority teachers, there exists a group of boundary-crossing…

Abstract

Purpose

Minority teachers is a growing phenomenon that is encouraged as part of a quest to diversify teaching staff. Among minority teachers, there exists a group of boundary-crossing teachers whose “otherness” contrasts with the different student population and/or staffroom composition. The study aims to examine parent, teacher and student attitudes toward teachers crossing two types of “borders” that are central to Israeli society: the Jewish-Arab rift and the religious-secular rift.

Design/methodology/approach

A representative sample of 182 Jewish Israeli parents, 201 Jewish Israeli students grades 10–12 and 101 Jewish Israeli teachers completed questionnaires regarding their attitudes toward boundary-crossing teachers.

Findings

The overall attitudes toward cross-boundary teaching were positive. Attitudes were found to be associated with political affiliation, religiosity and age. The more left-wing participants were, the less religious and older the more they supported boundary-crossing teaching. Students were significantly less supportive of teachers crossing the Jewish-Arab divide compared with adults. The attitudes toward boundary-crossing ultra-orthodox teachers in a secular school showed a distinct pattern, as it received support from all divides of the research participants.

Social implications

The findings point to the vicious cycle of segregation in Israeli society whereby the lack of contact between Jews and Arabs leads to intergroup anxiety which in turns leads to less support in further contact through boundary-crossing teaching, especially among high school students.

Originality/value

The minority teachers’ literature often refers to the need to diversify the teaching staff or examines teachers and their relations with students. This study if the first to examine how other stakeholders’ view the idea of minority teachers.

Details

Journal for Multicultural Education, vol. 14 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-535X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 April 2018

Cathrine Filstad, Boyka Simeonova and Max Visser

The purpose of this study is to investigate the crossing of knowledge and power boundaries within a bureaucratic organization by using enterprise social media (ESM). (Carlile’s

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the crossing of knowledge and power boundaries within a bureaucratic organization by using enterprise social media (ESM). (Carlile’s 2002) boundary crossing framework is used to guide this research.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews and observations in a large Norwegian public sector organization.

Findings

The authors find that investigating crossing knowledge and power boundaries by using ESM is problematic at syntactic, semantic and pragmatic levels. ESM is used predominantly for sharing, storing and retrieving explicit knowledge, which is a display of crossing the information-processing boundary. Hence, the possibilities of shifts in formal power positions where all employees can participate on equal terms is not achieved. On the contrary, as shared meaning on how to use EMS, taking the perspective of other on how to share knowledge and thus creating new knowledge practices in EMS by overcoming these knowledge barriers is not evident. Therefore, examples of crossing the semantic and pragmatic knowledge boundaries are rarely found.

Research limitations/implications

The framework could be applied to a variety of contexts to further explore the role of ESM in learning and knowledge sharing and its ability to cross power and knowledge boundaries.

Originality/value

This paper addresses a gap in the literature around discussions of power, trust, boundary crossing and the use of ESM for knowledge sharing and learning.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 November 2021

Essi Ryymin and Laura Lamberg

This paper aims to reveal learning potential in crossing disciplinary boundaries in facilitated workshops by exploring the research goal definition process of interdisciplinary…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to reveal learning potential in crossing disciplinary boundaries in facilitated workshops by exploring the research goal definition process of interdisciplinary research teams. It uses multilevel boundary crossing as a theoretical framework to illustrate the multilevel nature of team learning mechanisms in interdisciplinary research.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a qualitative case study approach. The data was collected from semi-structured interviews and collaborative workshops of interdisciplinary researchers. The data analysis is based on pre-existing theory and the process of analysis is both data and theory driven.

Findings

The results indicate that although defining interdisciplinary research goals is a complex and demanding task, collaborative and facilitated workshops may support boundary crossing on intrapersonal, interpersonal and institutional levels. The team members efforts in defining their shared research interest revealed dialogical learning mechanisms of identification, coordination, reflection and the first phases of transformation, particularly at the interpersonal level. However, the transformative actions seemed to require intentional team facilitation.

Originality/value

This case study enriches the existing literature and allows better understanding of how team facilitation can promote agenda setting, transformative learning mechanisms and the definition of joint research goals in interdisciplinary settings.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 29 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 August 2012

David Lewis

Organizational life and policy making is increasingly conceived in terms of a “three sector” model – public, private and “third”. The purpose of this research paper is to examine…

Abstract

Purpose

Organizational life and policy making is increasingly conceived in terms of a “three sector” model – public, private and “third”. The purpose of this research paper is to examine a little‐studied phenomenon that increasingly characterises societies in both the “developed” and the “developing” worlds. It aims to argue that these “sectors” have permeable boundaries, and that increasing numbers of activists and professionals operate across such boundaries, with important implications for policy and work.

Design/methodology/approach

The research paper reports on a set of new ethnographic life‐work history data from the UK, Bangladesh and Philippines to explore experiences of people who cross between, or straddle, the third sector and the public sector.

Findings

The paper constructs a preliminary typology of boundary crosser archetypes for purposes of further analysis. This is based on motivations and levels of boundary crossing. Boundary crossing of this kind is linked with the concept of “work role transition”, and with the micro‐politics of policy contention.

Practical implications

The paper concludes by suggesting that such work may offer new practical insights into strengthening the capacity of both third sector and government agencies.

Originality/value

The paper aims to be original in opening up this new topic for further discussion (and in particular problematizing the idea of sector boundaries), and through using the life history method to as part of organisational ethnography.

Details

Journal of Organizational Ethnography, vol. 1 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-6749

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 June 2016

Karen Ingerslev

This paper reports from a qualitative case study of a change initiative undertaken in a Danish public hospital setting during national healthcare reforms. The purpose of this…

1435

Abstract

Purpose

This paper reports from a qualitative case study of a change initiative undertaken in a Danish public hospital setting during national healthcare reforms. The purpose of this paper is to challenge understandings of innovations as defined by being value-adding per se. Whether the effects of attempting to innovate are positive or negative is in this paper regarded as a matter of empirical investigation.

Design/methodology/approach

Narrative accounts of activities during the change initiative are analysed in order to elucidate the effects of framing the change initiative as innovation on which boundaries are created and crossed.

Findings

Framing change initiatives as innovation leads to intended as well as unanticipated boundary crossings where healthcare practitioners from different organizations recognize a shared problem and task. It also leads to unintended boundary reinforcements between “us and them” that may exclude the perspectives of patients or stakeholders when confronting complex problems in healthcare. This boundary reinforcement can lead to further fragmentation of healthcare despite the stated intention to create more integrated services.

Practical implications

The paper suggests that researchers as well as practitioners should not presume that intentions to innovate will by themselves enhance creativity and innovation. When analysing the intended, unintended as well as unanticipated consequences of framing change initiatives as innovation, researchers and practitioner gain nuanced knowledge about the effects of intending to innovate in complex settings such as healthcare.

Originality/value

This paper suggests the need for an analytical move from studying the effects of innovation to studying the effects of framing complex problems as a call for innovation.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 April 2018

Efthimia Dafou

The purpose of this paper is to provide a boundary-focused analysis of career patterns in Greek public education.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a boundary-focused analysis of career patterns in Greek public education.

Design/methodology/approach

A descriptive, interpretive design from the naturalistic paradigm was chosen for the study, based on narratives of 27 public education employees who used decision-making models for outlining their career plans.

Findings

This study depicted career-related boundaries and intentions of employees to develop their career within their domain or crossing particular boundaries, namely, the public-private boundary, the public education to higher education boundary, the occupational and other less salient boundaries.

Research limitations/implications

The delimitation of the study on public education employees studying for a postgraduate diploma might limit the scope of inter-occupational mobility.

Practical implications

This study highlights the subject of the first degree as the most critical determinant of career development, and identifies the role of structural constraints, especially of promotion systems, in “bounding” graduate careers.

Originality/value

This study developed a typology of career paths of public education employees and associated them with the identification of two main employee profiles, related to the subject of their first degree.

Details

Career Development International, vol. 23 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1362-0436

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 October 2014

Belgin Okay-Somerville and Dora Scholarios

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and role of career boundaries for enabling/constraining career self-management (CSM) for occupational boundary-crossing in the…

2370

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and role of career boundaries for enabling/constraining career self-management (CSM) for occupational boundary-crossing in the UK graduate labour market (GLM).

Design/methodology/approach

The data are provided by career history interviews with 36 UK graduates. The analysis contrasts transitions for those who started careers in low-, intermediate-, and high-skilled segments of the labour market.

Findings

Availability of development and progression opportunities were the most prominent career boundary experienced. Ease of boundary-crossing differed by career stage and educational background. Boundaries enabled CSM by acting as psychological/external push factors, but push factors only aided progression to high-skilled segments for a third of graduates who started careers in underemployment. For the rest, an adaptation of expectations to labour market realities was observed.

Research limitations/implications

Although career history interviews limit generalisability, they contextualise boundaries and deepen understanding of career actors’ subjective experiences and responses.

Practical implications

The study highlights the role of labour market and demand-side constraints for career transitions as well as proactive career behaviours. This has implications for career counsellors, employers, and individuals.

Originality/value

This paper provides a distinctive “boundary-focused” analysis of emerging career boundaries in the GLM. The findings point to the intricate interplay between structure and agency for career development.

Details

Career Development International, vol. 19 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1362-0436

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 29 November 2022

Antonella Cifalinò, Irene Eleonora Lisi, Mara Gorli and Giuseppe Scaratti

Modern intra- and inter-organizational arrangements require firms to cross boundaries, but this process represents a crucial and complex challenge, especially for organizations…

1004

Abstract

Purpose

Modern intra- and inter-organizational arrangements require firms to cross boundaries, but this process represents a crucial and complex challenge, especially for organizations that face pluralistic tensions. Scholars still lack sufficient knowledge of how boundaries can be crossed and what kind of boundary management is necessary within pluralistic contexts. This paper aims to enrich the understanding of these issues by exploring how strategy maps can be mobilized and used as boundary objects to elicit boundary-spanning practices that foster cross-boundary collaboration in pluralistic organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper employs the case study methodology to capture the dynamics of cross-boundary management elicited by the use of a strategy map within a pluralistic social/healthcare organizational context.

Findings

This study identifies four practices of boundary spanning (i.e. identifying and crossing problem boundaries, orchestrating collective responsibilities, acknowledging a common understanding of convergent values and goals, and evolving into action) in the analysed pluralistic context and investigates the conditions under which cross-boundary interactions can mobilize a shared zone of knowing via strategy maps.

Originality/value

This paper suggests a complex (and not linear) processual model of boundary management in pluralistic contexts in which the use of the strategy map mobilizes a dynamic of centrifugal and centripetal movements which engage plural actors in a shared site of collaborative knowing. The study contributes to a conceptualization of boundary management in pluralistic contexts as a progressive social accomplishment.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 60 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 February 2014

Demosthenes Akoumianakis

The purpose of this paper is to investigate boundary spanning tactics in a cross-organizational virtual alliance and discuss the analytical value of “digging” into technology for…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate boundary spanning tactics in a cross-organizational virtual alliance and discuss the analytical value of “digging” into technology for excavating boundaries and understanding their dynamic and emergent features.

Design/methodology/approach

Although boundaries, their role and implications have been extensively investigated across a variety of online settings, the results are inconclusive as to the features of technology that create, dissolve or re-locate boundaries. This is attributed to the fact that in most cases technology is addressed as a black box – a discrete artefact of practice – without seeking justification for the inscribed functions that enable or constrain use. The paper overcomes these shortcomings by analysing digital trace data compiled through a virtual ethnographic assessment of a cross-organizational tourism alliance. Data comprise electronic traces of online collaboration whose interpretive capacity is augmented using knowledge visualization techniques capable of revealing dynamic and emergent features of boundary spanning.

Findings

Boundary spanning in virtual settings entails micro-negotiations around several types of boundaries. Some of them are either enforced by or inscribed into technology, while others are enacted in practice. Knowledge visualization of digital trace data allows “excavation” of these boundaries, assessment of their implications on distributed organizing of online ensembles and discovery of “hidden” knowledge that drives boundary spanning tactics of collaborators.

Practical implications

In cross-organizational collaborative settings, boundary spanning represents an enacted capability stemming from the intertwining between material and social/collective agencies. Consequently, boundaries surface as first class design constructs, directing design attention not only to features inscribed in technology (i.e. user profiles, registration mechanisms, moderation policies) but also the way such features are appropriated to re-shape, re-locate or dissolve boundaries.

Originality/value

An empirical data pool compiled through virtual ethnographic assessment of online collaboration is revisited and augmented with knowledge visualization techniques that enhance the interpretive capacity of the data and reveal “hidden” aspects of the collaborators’ boundary spanning behaviour and tactics.

Details

Journal of Enterprise Information Management, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0398

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 45000