Shared Leadership Session: Alliance for Nonprofit Management
Boundary Spanning Leadership Jeff08
1. The Challenge and Practice of Boundary Spanning Leadership Jeffrey YipPresented to:International Leadership Association Conference, Los AngelesNovember 14, 2008
2. Center for Creative Leadership What What is boundary spanning leadership? Why Why is it needed? How How can it be put into practice? What’s Next Steps for future research
3. Center for Creative Leadership Leadership Across Differences Question - How can leaders bridge boundaries across divergent or conflicting groups? 2803 survey respondents 239 interviews 12 countries
5. Center for Creative Leadership Leadership often stops where boundaries start…
6. Center for Creative Leadership Today, the opposite is required – leadership that builds bridges across boundaries
7. Center for Creative Leadership Boundary Spanning Leadership Leadership that bridges boundaries between groups in service of a broader vision or goal. Group X Group Y Intergroup Context Leader Ernst, C. and Yip, J. (2008) Bringing Boundaries: Managing the Challenge of Workplace Diversity.Leadership in Action, Vol 28, No. 1, Jossey-Bass.
8. Center for Creative Leadership Challenges for Boundary Spanning #1: Leaders are often pulled in many directionsbetween conflicting intergroup values, viewpoints, and beliefs
9. Center for Creative Leadership #2: Leaders are commonly pushed to one side. By definition, a leader is a member of some groups and not others. Groups will form perceptions of a leader based solely on social identity grouping. Challenges for Boundary Spanning
10. Center for Creative Leadership #3: Leaders are all too frequently caught out of the loop. This is in part due to information filtering, but also in part due to the leader’s lack of critical awareness concerning social identity dynamics. Challenges for Boundary Spanning
20. Center for Creative Leadership What are the boundaries that leaders have to work across?
21. A typology of organizational boundaries Vertical Boundaries Geographic Boundaries Across stakeholders (i.e., partners, customers, communities Across regions, nationalities & cultures Across levels & ranks External Boundaries HorizontalBoundaries Across functions & units Demographic Boundaries Across diverse groups (i.e., gender, religion, race, age, ethnicity, and class) (Adapted from Ashkenas et al, 1998)
22. Boundary Spanning Tactics Suspending:Create a neutral zone where social interaction is person-based rather than identity-group based Reframing:Activate a shared or superordinate identity that is inclusive across social groups Nesting:Embed groups within large wholes so that groups have both distinct and interdependent identities Weaving:Cross-cut work group roles with social group membership in a systematic way Ernst, C. & Yip, J. (2009, in press). Boundary spanning leadership: Tactics for bridging social boundaries in organization. In T. Pittinsky (Ed.) Crossing the divide: Intergroup leadership in a world of difference. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
37. Recap - Boundary Spanning Leadership What Leadership that bridges group boundaries in service of a higher vision or goal Why As physical boundaries come down, new psychological boundaries come up What’s Next The shift from within to between - An area for leadership research and practice How Tools can help make invisible boundaries, visible
