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

Discussion
Previous empirical research has indicated a positive relationship between
frequent boundary activity and team or unit success (Ancona, 1990; Ancona
& Caldwell, 1992b). The current study proposes a similar association for
early stage change programs. This proposition is supported by previous
studies that suggest that frequent external activity may be especially
important during the early stage of an organization (Ancona & Caldwell,
1990; Gladstein & Caldwell, 1985), since the emerging organization needs
to collect external information and build relations to facilitate future
interactions. The findings show how case programs are in active interaction
with their context, providing support to Johansson et al. (2007), who
proposed that the concept of “planned isolation” related to temporary
organizations (Lundin & Söderholm, 1995) might not be suitable for change
projects and programs.
The present findings further suggest that not only a large amount of
boundary activity is required for giving a change program a proper start,
but also a balanced set of different types of boundary activities is needed.
According to the empirical analysis, the two successful cases in terms of
bringing the change programs from initiation to implementation (cases
Bureau and Chain) demonstrated a fuller and more informed use of
different boundary activity types than the case (Center) that was
characterized as a failure. The analysis indicated how the different
boundary activity types contribute to readiness for change program
implementation in several ways. Boundary activities are utilized, for
instance, to create a sense of a shared direction for the program, to
legitimize the change effort in the eyes of top management, to seek
resources for administrating the program, and to make the parent
organization more receptive to change by preparing the recipients to the
coming changes. The large number of identified associations between the
boundary activity types and the various aspects of readiness for change
program implementation indicate that different types of boundary activities
have different roles in building change readiness. Consistent with this
proposition, Ancona and Caldwell (1992a) found that for product
development teams a comprehensive strategy of external activity, including
a wide variety of boundary activities, is the only one positively related with
long-term performance. The current study suggests a similarly
comprehensive set of boundary activities for the managers of change
programs.
The study has proposed a great number of mechanisms how the array of
boundary activities contributes to establishing and ensuring the
managerial, infrastructural, cognitive, and psychological conditions for a
significant transformation of an organization. In all, the results support the
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