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

Discussion
resources to mobilize the transformation. From the third category, crossing
the program’s boundary outwards, informing activities aim to inform
others in the parent organization about the program’s existence, the
rationale behind it, the program’s goals and activities, and its status.
Legitimating and committing activities aim to make the program accepted
and to get those in the parent organization to support the program, while
influencing activities are about causing changes in the parent organization
in other areas than those directly related to the change program’s goals.
In addition to the above listed boundary crossing and shaping activities,
also isolative boundary activities were identified, forming the fourth
category of activities. Guarding activities are about blocking the inward
flows to the program and this way protecting the program from external
influences, whereas enclosing activities block outward communication
from the program. These isolative boundary activities aim to shelter the
emerging change endeavors and provide the program teams a peaceful
work environment to advance the program plans.
The array of boundary activities revealed by the analysis is largely in line
with earlier research findings concerning intra-organizational boundary
activities at the unit, team or group level. Many boundary activity types
identified in the current study have been reported in earlier research. For
example, several previous studies have reported boundary activities related
to information seeking, referred to as scouting (Ancona & Caldwell, 1988,
1992a; Druskat & Wheeler, 2003) or gathering intelligence (Balogun et al.,
2005). Informing activities have been characterized earlier as displaying
work across boundaries by making it visible and accessible to others in the
organization (Kellogg et al., 2006). Negotiating activities have been
reported by Levina and Vaast (2005) in the context of information system
implementation projects, and negotiating has also been included in task
coordinating activity reported by Ancona and Caldwell (1992a) in the
context of product development teams. Related to the isolative boundary
activities, the studies by Ancona and Caldwell (1988, 1992a) have also
reported guarding activities and enclosing activities (referred to as sentry
activities).
Further illustrating the similarities to previous research findings,
legitimating and committing activities largely resemble ambassadorial
activities, which Ancona and Caldwell (1988, 1992a) have suggested to be
critical to the success of product development teams. The concept of
ambassadorial activities, as described by Ancona and Caldwell, includes
lobbying resources for the team, and thus encompasses resource seeking
activities, which were included as a separate activity type in the current
study. Furthermore, a boundary activity similar to legitimating, committing
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