LEADERSHIP CHAP09PP

CHAPTER NINE
BOUNDARY SPANNING
AND TEAM
LEADERSHIP

© Prentice Hall 2006

9-1


Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
do the following:


Describe boundary-spanning leader behaviors
and provide specific examples of these
behaviors.



Explain why boundary-spanning behaviors can
have positive effects on followers.



Describe skills, abilities, and sources of power
leaders need to be effective at boundaryspanning.



Describe the individual and organizational
benefits that can result from effective
boundary spanning behaviors.
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9-2


Learning Objectives (cont.)
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
do the following:





Describe an approach to negotiation that will
maximize benefits for all parties
Describe team leadership as an important role
that requires effective boundary-spanning and
other leader behaviors.
Identify follower, organizational, and task
characteristics for which boundary-spanning
leader behaviors would be highly effective and
where they would not be effective.

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9-3

Boundary Spanning Leadership
Leader actions that establish and
maintain a group’s integrity through
negotiating with nongroup members,
resolving disputes among followers
and subgroups, obtaining resources,
establishing influence networks, and
helping followers deal with the external
environment.
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9-4


Examples of Boundary Spanning
Leadership Behaviors


Defining and modifying organizational or
unit boundaries so members know who is
and who is not a member.



Protecting and representing the group while
resisting unreasonable demands and
responding to outside influence.



Managing interactions between leaders and
followers, among followers themselves, and
among subgroups within the leader’s unit,
including helping to resolve stalemates and
conflicts.

© Prentice Hall 2006

9-5


Examples of Boundary Spanning Leadership
Behaviors (cont.)






Negotiating with upper management and other
outsiders to obtain resources for the unit and
to arrange for distribution of the unit’s output.
Identifying and describing for group members
what they should attend to in the environment
and what they should ignore to help them
make sense of developments which may affect
them (otherwise known as frame alignment).
Obtaining, filtering and storing valuable
information from the unit’s environment;

putting the information into a useful form; and
disseminating it to unit members.

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9-6


Boundary Spanning
Leader Behaviors
Define
Define&&
manipulate
manipulateunit
unit
boundaries
boundaries

Resolve
Resolvestalemates
stalemates
&&conflicts
conflicts

Respond
Respondto
to
external
demands
external demands&&

influences
influences

Obtain
Obtainresources
resources&&
distribute
distributeoutputs
outputs

Boundary
BoundarySpanning
Spanning
Leader
LeaderBehaviors
Behaviors

Sensitize
Sensitizeunit
unit
members
membersto
to
environmental
environmentalissues
issues

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Develop

Develop&&
maintain
maintainnetworks
networks

Obtain,
Obtain,filter,
filter,store
store&&
disseminate
disseminate
information
information

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Key Leadership Roles Which Managers Play That
Involve Some Sort of Boundary Spanning














Figurehead—performing symbolic acts such as representing the
organization at social gatherings.
Liaison—forming and maintaining networks outside the unit including
making new contacts, keeping in touch with important outsider, and
doing favors.
Monitoring—obtaining information from outside the leader’s unit which
may help the overall unit’s performance.
Disseminator—passing information on to insiders or to subunits about
other subunits.
Spokesperson—transmitting information and expressing value
statements to outsiders.
Disturbance handler—dealing with conflicts among subordinates or
subunits, loss of subordinates, strikes, and other “crisis situations.”
Negotiator—bargaining for the unit in dealing with others over

resources and constraints; buffering the unit and its members
from higher ups and outsiders.

© Prentice Hall 2006

9-8


Skills and Power Sources for Boundary
Spanning Leadership
Story
Storytelling

telling&&
slogan
slogancreation
creationskills
skills

Political
Political&&
negotiation
negotiationskills
skills

Communication
Communication
skills
skills

Connection/
Connection/
resource
resourcepower
power

Expert
Expertpower
power

Skills
Skillsand
andPower

Power
Sources
Sourcesfor
forBoundary
Boundary
Spanning
SpanningLeadership
Leadership

Referent
Referentpower
power

© Prentice Hall 2006

Conflict
Conflictmanagement
management
skills
skills

Reward
Reward&&
coercive
coercivepower
power
Legitimate
Legitimate
power
power

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Guidelines for Negotiating









Separate the People from the
Problem
Focus on Interests, Not Positions
Invent Options for Mutual Gain
Insist on Using Objective Criteria
Know Your Best Alternative to a
Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)
Preparation is the Key
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9-10


Situational and Follower Characteristics that Affect
the Impact of Boundary Spanning Leadership
Enhancers of

Neutralizers of

Boundary-Spanning

Boundary Spanning

• Environmental uncertainty
versus predictability

• Older followers with many
years of service

• Task uncertainty & difficulty

• Followers with high rank

• Centrality of leader’s unit
• Leader’s experience and
familiarity with organizational
operations
• Leader’s extensive internal &
external networks

Substitutes for
Boundary Spanning
• Numerous formal
organizational procedures

• Team-based organization

structure
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9-11


Creating Team-Based Replacements
for Leadership
Developing leadership replacements involves
teaching and coaching the team and its members
in several skills of self-leadership, including:








Self-observation
Self-goal setting
Antecedent modification
Self-reward and punishment
Rehearsal
Strategic planning
Learning to avoid groupthink

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9-12

Summary: When Is
Boundary Spanning Needed?


When an organization is composed of work
teams that operate with some independence
from higher management, boundary spanning
will be especially important.



This is a very common situation in today’s
organizations, making boundary spanning an
important type of leader behavior



Leaders may be especially effective at boundary
spanning when they are good communicators,
assertive, knowledgeable and experienced in
organizational operations, and have many
connections outside their group or department.

© Prentice Hall 2006

9-13

Process Model of Boundary-Spanning
Leadership
SITUATIONAL
FACTORS INCREASING
LEADER
EFFECTIVENESS
Enhancers
• Environmental uncertainty
versus predictability
• Task uncertainty and
difficulty
• Centrality of leader’s unit
• Leader’s experience and
familiarity with
organizational operations
• Leader’s extensive internal
and external networks
• Team-based organization
structure

BOUNDARY-SPANNING LEADER
BEHAVIORS

• Defining and manipulating unit boundaries
• Representing the unit in response to external demands
and influence
• Negotiating to obtain resources and distribute the unit’s
output
• Resolving stalemates and conflicts within the unit and
with other units

• Sensitizing unit members to key environmental issues
• Developing and maintaining networks
• Obtaining, filtering, storing, and disseminating
information

FOLLOWER/GROUP PSYCHOLOGICAL
REACTIONS
•
•
•

High job satisfaction*
Better morale*
High confidence in leader*

FOLLOWER BEHAVIORS AND OUTCOMES
•
•
•
•

High performance evaluations*
Effective performance
Lower turnover rates
Higher promotion rates

© Prentice Hall 2006

SITUATIONAL
FACTORS

DECREASING
LEADER
EFFECTIVENESS
Neutralizers
• Followers who are
older or highly
experienced
• Followers with high
rank

* These psychological
reactions and
outcomes have
shown the strongest
improvement from
leader’s boundaryspanning.

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Applying the Model of Boundary
Spanning Leadership
1. DIAGNOSING THE SITUATION
• Is the leader’s environment uncertain, or can it be manipulated?
• Are followers’ work tasks highly uncertain, difficult, or conflict-prone?
• Is the leader’s group central to the overall organization’s success?
• Is the leader responsible for one or more self-managed teams?
• Does the leader have important connections that can benefit the group?
If “yes” to one or more of these questions, followers will probably respond favorably to
boundary spanning leadership.

3. MODIFYING FOLLOWERS
AND/OR SITUATIONS

2. PROVIDING BOUNDARY SPANNING
LEADERSHIP

Leaders act to:
• Build procedures that allow followers to
obtain resources & solve problems on their
own
• Place followers who are older, experienced,
and high status into boundary spanning
positions
• Create self-leadership capabilities in the
leader’s group through training and
development

Leader demonstrates boundary spanning by:
• Manipulating and protecting group boundaries to
resist jolts from the environment
• Interacting with outsiders to obtain resources and
develop agreements that help the group
• Managing interactions among followers to resolve
conflicts & overcome difficulties
• Obtaining, filtering, storing & disseminating
valuable information for the group’s benefit

© Prentice Hall 2006

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