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

CASE BUREAU
Categories and types of
boundary activities
Description of the activity in the case Examples of quotes Frequency
(total:
187 quotes)
% of
activities
Category I: Defining and shaping the boundary 51 27%
Positioning and negotiating Some positioning and negotiating activities were found,
mainly related to seeking top management acceptance to
ideas and discussing the program in the organization’s
various management forums.
Unit manager actively involved in the program: “I have tried to
gather as good and as wide a representation as possible in these
steering groups … Although I was already given the mandate to
implement this during the early decision making, if we want this to
work in practice also in the future, we need to gain acceptance
from all the parties involved. So in these steering groups we seek
common views.”
10 5%
Linking There were quite active linking efforts, mainly related to
integrating the program into the existing management
system and inviting decision makers from different units in
the program’s management forums.
Manager overseeing the program implementation: “We linked this
to the line organization and gave this [project] to [a certain
unit’s] responsibility. … There are many skilled people there, but
the problem of [this unit] is that they have their own interests at
play, which may also be reflected in the project.”
30 16%
Task coordinating Some task coordinating activities were found, mostly
related to discussing the program in the parent
organization’s management forums and coordinating
resources between the program work and other work.
Unit manager actively involved in the program: “We have our
unit’s management group meeting once every two weeks, and [the
representatives of two central projects of the program] also
participate in these meetings. They tell others about their projects’
situation and needs, and we have discussions on where to find the
required resources.”
11 6%
Category II: Crossing the boundary inwards 46 25%
Information seeking Wide-scale efforts of seeking information took place e.g.
by gathering representatives from different parts of Bureau
to ideation and planning workshops, seminars and
meetings, and by contacting people personally and through
surveys.
Project participant: “There were different kinds of instructions and
forms for data gathering that we filled out [in different units] and
then we gathered up to analyze them.”
40 21%
Resource seeking Just a few resource seeking activities were found, related
to seeking for key project personnel and utilizing the
support services of the line organization.
Program manager: “We have utilized the secretary services of the
line organization, as well as other support services”.
6 3%