The DOI matches its Crossref record.
The Migration of Organizational Functions to the Work Unit Level: Buffering, Spanning, and Bringing Up Boundaries
Abstract
In this paper, we propose that the locus of organizational boundary activities has migrated from the organization to the work unit level as enterprises reengineer structures, increase the use of cross-functional teams, cut organizational slack and adopt advanced information technologies. From an open systems perspective, we examine how environmental and organizational forces affect this migration process. Three types of boundary activity relevant for work units are identified: buffering, spanning, and bringing up boundaries. A set of preliminary propositions regarding relationships between environmental and organizational changes and boundary activities is offered as a guide for future research.
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Citations
Cited by
The Workplace as a Context for Cross-Cutting Political Discourse
Mutz, D. C., & Mondak, J. J. (2006) · The Journal of Politics · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00376.x · Cited by 612
Transactive Memory Systems in Organizations: Matching Tasks, Expertise, and People
Brandon, D. P., & Hollingshead, A. B. (2004) · Organization Science · doi:10.1287/orsc.1040.0069 · Cited by 553
Metadata
- Authors
- Yan, A., & Louis, M. R.
- Venue
- Human Relations
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1999-01
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 25-47
- ISSN
- 0018-7267 (ISSN-L)
- 1741-282X
- OpenAlex
- W2147116970
- Cited by
- 181
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 13.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The Migration of Organizational Functions to the Work Unit Level: Buffering, Spanning, and Bringing Up Boundaries. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1177/001872679905200103
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- Yan, A., & Louis, M. R. (1999). The Migration of Organizational Functions to the Work Unit Level: Buffering, Spanning, and Bringing Up Boundaries. Human Relations. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679905200103
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
