Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti

Discussion
organization by establishing work approaches and methods that differ from
the prevailing organizational norms, and also by bypassing some
organizational procedures that are viewed as disruptive for the program.
The role of the key program managers in advancing and promoting
emerging programs is discussed in more detail when responding to the
research question 5.
In line with the earlier research (Andersen, 2006), the present study also
reports ways in which the surrounding parent organization may contribute
to setting a change program’s boundaries. The top managers of the
organization typically take part in the negotiations where the program’s
goals, scope and organization are defined and the limits for the program’s
authority are set. The top managers may also affect the emerging program’s
boundaries in more subtle ways. As an extreme example, Case Center
demonstrates how the inactivity of the line managers who were formally
appointed as program steering group members, but in practice did not
devote time for guiding the program, contributed to the formation of a
significant knowledge boundary between the change program and the
parent organization. In case Center this strong knowledge boundary was
analyzed to affect the program’s premature termination.
In addition to demonstrating how a change program’s boundaries are
initially formed in the interplay between the emerging program
organization and its parent organization, the findings indicate that a change
program’s boundaries evolve beyond the initial set up stage. This
observation lends support to earlier studies (e.g. Hernes, 2004; Ratcheva,
2009) by suggesting that a program’s boundaries are under constant
change. The program organization expands as new members join the
program team, and initial key actors may be replaced by new ones. Each
new member brings along his or her existing contacts to the parent
organization, which may contribute to shaping the program’s boundaries.
Although the current study has mainly examined the parent organization
of a change program as one entity, the findings imply that a program’s
boundary may appear differently to different groups within the
organization. The boundary may be weaker (or “thinner”) towards some
stakeholder groups, such as certain expert groups or top managers, and
higher (or “thicker”) towards others, such as the employees who are not
involved in planning the change but will eventually be affected by the
program’s results. The findings further indicate that the existence of a
strong boundary towards a certain stakeholder group may not be
intentional or purposeful. To give an example, in all three investigated cases
the proponents of the programs expressed concerns about the program’s
distance from the eventual recipients of change.
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