Whether it’s crossing disciplines, breaking down silos, or thinking outside the box, everyone’s talking about boundary spanning as the key to solving the world’s toughest problems.
So why isn’t everyone doing it?
A new study conducted by Tom Bateman, Professor of Management at the McIntire School of Commerce, and Andrew Hess, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Washington & Lee University, offers some intriguing clues. The study, titled “Different Personal Propensities among Scientists Relate to Deeper vs. Broader Knowledge Contributions,” appeared March 2, 2015, in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
“We wanted to see if we could predict who would do deeper, more specialized work, and who would do broader, boundary-spanning work,” says Bateman, an expert in leadership, motivation, and decision making. “Scientific research is absolutely crucial to the health and well-being of our planet and its people—and if we want to understand how scientific progress occurs, we have to develop a better understanding of why and how researchers pursue their work in the ways that they do.”
Deep Thoughts?
Examining 10-year archival records of research published by some 466 medical researchers, Bateman and Hess first scored each published article according to the depth and breadth of its contribution to existing knowledge. (Conveniently, the digital archive of which they made use indicates key subject terms for every article published, enabling the objective discernment of breadth and depth.) By indexing the scored articles by author, the two were then able to assess each researcher’s publication record according to its breadth and depth.
Next, Bateman and Hess sent questionnaires to the researchers, seeking insight into key work-related behaviors and attitudes. How might factors such as an individual’s professional competitiveness or conscientiousness affect the nature of their research output? What about the individual’s fundamental attitude toward their research, as either an opportunity to learn, or an opportunity to perform? “We were able to relate the researchers’ questionnaire scores to the breadth and depth of their research,” Bateman says. “And the predictors were different for the two different types of research output.”
Their findings? Broadly speaking, highly competitive researchers were more likely to turn out highly specialized work; similarly, highly conscientious researchers, keen to follow rules and meet expectations, likewise avoided breadth. Those who regarded their work as an opportunity to perform were also more likely to produce highly specialized research—but those who regarded their work as an opportunity to learn were likely to lean toward boundary-spanning breadth.
Attitude Adjustment
Bateman is quick to point out that the researchers’ behaviors are only that—behaviors. “These are not necessarily deeply engrained personality traits, but behavioral workplace styles that can be changed if people decide they want to change them,” he says. “If individual researchers know what their tendencies are, they can start to think strategically about whether they want to strive for greater depth, or greater breadth,” he says. “The same point applies to research teams and research administrators, who can start thinking about how to change goals and approaches to research output.”
The Latest on: Boundary spanning
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Boundary spanning” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Boundary spanning
- Returning, Reflecting, Rebuilding: The Art of Howard Lamaron May 15, 2024 at 7:05 am
Against a harsh historical context, Howard Lamar's work invites viewers to connect with the beauty of the human experience ...
- Ukraine chillingly warns it's 'used everything' as Putin amasses half a million troops on frontlineon May 15, 2024 at 5:55 am
The economist with no military experience now leading Russia's defense READ MORE: Zelensky calls Vladimir Putin a 'Nazi' as Russia intensifies attacks on Ukrainian energy grid Kremlin forces aim to ...
- Xplore Receives Drill Program Permit for Surge Lithium Project; Drilling to Commence in Juneon May 15, 2024 at 12:20 am
Drilling results reported by Green Technology Metals for five holes within 50 m of the Surge property boundary include 23.3 m of 1.16% ... The deposit now boasts a 10 Mt at 1.29% Li 2 O JORC Resource, ...
- Study explores effects of overseas business activity through experiences of expatriateson May 10, 2024 at 10:33 am
In international business, companies frequently dispatch their employees overseas as expatriates. They are crucial for linking the headquarters with foreign branches and their subsidiaries and ...
- A eulogy for vacation Bible schoolon May 3, 2024 at 3:12 am
Holding on to programs and ministries for the sake of nostalgia and tradition often distracts churches from other ministry opportunities.
- Collaboration Across Social Boundaries: A Practical Guideon May 2, 2024 at 6:49 am
Every social system has its own unique and self-reinforcing characteristics, practices, and vocabularies. Learning to span these boundaries is a prerequisite for any significant change effort.
- The process of team boundary spanning process in multi-organizational contextson March 19, 2024 at 12:55 am
Although previous research demonstrates the importance of boundary spanning activities to team effectiveness, it reveals relatively little about the process of boundary spanning in these environments.
- Explore our Journalson March 2, 2024 at 5:36 pm
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment publishes several peer-reviewed article types focused on cutting-edge and boundary-spanning aspects of ecology, the environment, and related disciplines.
- Supply Chain Managementon February 14, 2024 at 3:50 pm
Due to the boundary-spanning nature of supply chain management, the SCM course also has strong links to the first-year courses in marketing, leadership, and strategy. The course emphasizes the ...
- Katherine Adams, Ph.D.on November 17, 2020 at 1:43 am
Katherine's research interests are in the areas of boundary spanning, higher education leadership, minority-serving institutions, and college homelessness. She is also the Community Voice and Student ...
via Bing News