Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti
Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti
Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti
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Discussion<br />
view that <strong>readiness</strong> <strong>for</strong> change is something that the leaders of a change<br />
ef<strong>for</strong>t need to actively promote to create a solid ground <strong>for</strong> change<br />
implementation (e.g. Neves, 2009). The three cases demonstrate how<br />
program initiation <strong>and</strong> planning requires much more than just developing<br />
action plans. The change program must, <strong>for</strong> instance, be legitimized <strong>and</strong> its<br />
role in the organization must be clarified <strong>and</strong> communicated. The parent<br />
organization as a target <strong>and</strong> a client of the resulting change must be<br />
prepared <strong>for</strong> the changes <strong>and</strong> thus actively involved in change initiation <strong>and</strong><br />
planning.<br />
Furthermore, the current study demonstrates how the perspective of<br />
boundary <strong>activities</strong> provides a common framework <strong>for</strong> many different<br />
streams of inquiry in the existing literature on organizational change.<br />
Previous literature on mobilizing change has discussed mechanisms such as<br />
issue selling (Dutton & Duncan, 1987; Dutton et al., 2001), participatory<br />
approaches (Lines, 2004), momentum building (Jansen, 2004), change<br />
communication (Allen et al., 2007; Frahm & Brown, 2007; Rafferty &<br />
Restubog, 2010; Russ, 2008), decreasing resistance to change (Ford et al.,<br />
2002; Mealia, 1978) <strong>and</strong> gaining employee acceptance <strong>for</strong> change (Brunton<br />
& Matheny, 2009), all of which concern collaboration between the change<br />
advocates <strong>and</strong> the change targets. The concept of boundary management<br />
provides a common umbrella <strong>for</strong> these actions, <strong>and</strong> the outcome of these<br />
actions may be conceptualized as <strong>readiness</strong> <strong>for</strong> change implementation.<br />
By highlighting the change program’s external activity, the propositions<br />
discussed above do not aim to downplay the importance of a change<br />
program’s internal operations. The processes <strong>and</strong> actions that occur within<br />
the team boundary have many purposes, such as <strong>for</strong>ming <strong>and</strong> en<strong>for</strong>cing<br />
team norms <strong>and</strong> regulating decision making within the team (e.g. Choi,<br />
2002). Previous research has suggested that the team’s internal <strong>activities</strong><br />
may contribute to the team’s boundary: as the internal <strong>activities</strong> promote<br />
team cohesion, boundaries naturally emerge between the team <strong>and</strong> its<br />
environment (Drach-Zahavy & Somech, 2010; Yan & Louis, 1999). Previous<br />
research has also noted how the internal <strong>and</strong> external operations of a team<br />
are interconnected <strong>and</strong> sometimes even difficult to distinguish from each<br />
other (Choi, 2002; Drach-Zahavy & Somech, 2010). Well-working internal<br />
processes have been described as a requirement <strong>for</strong> effective external<br />
activity, as they provide a basis <strong>for</strong> interpreting, adapting <strong>and</strong> integrating<br />
the inputs from outside sources to support the team in its task (Ancona &<br />
Caldwell, 1990). It is apparent also in the current findings that a change<br />
program’s internal <strong>activities</strong> are in a central role in promoting many of the<br />
dimensions of <strong>readiness</strong> <strong>for</strong> change program implementation. For example,<br />
the appointed key managers of a program typically are by their role<br />
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