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

Theoretical background
Ambassadorial activities in projects have also been recognized.
Woodward (1982) found that in planning a large project, a key task is to
achieve organizational acceptance for the project by managing the relations
outside the planning team, including activities of defending the team and
its output, recognizing the role conflicts related to matrix organizations,
consulting others during the planning, and keeping others informed of the
procedures and the progress of the project. Jensen et al. (2006) suggested
that in temporary organizations that are heavily dependent on their parent
organization, project teams need to spend time on negotiations and
legitimacy building at the expense of solving problems related to the
project’s task. Gaddis presented already in 1959 how project managers must
constantly “sell” the project to fight for the resources and even for the
project’s existence.
The early accounts of projects and temporary organizations also
recognized the importance of guarding activities. Gaddis (1959) described
how project managers must balance in shielding the experts of their project
teams from external queries and pressure, whilst allowing them with
adequate freedom to develop their skills and advance their careers.
Goodman and Goodman (1976) noted how the managers of a temporary
organization are in a position where they have to continually resist
pleadings and pressure both from the team and from its environment. More
recent research has similarly described how the project manager may need
to actively buffer external demands to protect the project team, so that the
project can operate in peace (Blomquist & Packendorff, 1998; Faraj &
Sambamurthy, 2006)
As depicted above, authors on project management have often discussed
actions that can be labeled as boundary activities. Still, very few studies
have specifically addressed boundary activities in a temporary organization
context. The current study takes up the task to explore boundary activities
related to change programs. In this context, boundary activities are
defined as the set of activities with which a program organization
manages the interaction with its environment (adapted from Jemison,
1984 and Ancona & Caldwell, 1990).
Change programs are likely to demonstrate a significant need for
boundary activities. Firstly, change programs are dependent on their parent
organizations in terms of funds, personnel resources, information, and
other input (Choi, 2002). Change programs also involve a high level of
uncertainty, especially during program initiation, related to the goals,
means and the environment of the program. According to the classic
argument of the information processing perspective, higher uncertainty is
associated with increased requirements for external information (Leifer &
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