Boundary Spanning, Group Heterogeneity and Engineering Project Performance

Abstract

This study examines the concept of intra-organizational links as a way for boundary spanners to bring into the project group the information needed to deal with task uncertainty. Several studies have shown that heterogeneous groups are superior to homogeneous groups when novel or creative solutions need to be developed to deal with tasks characterized by high task uncertainty. For boundary spanners in engineering project groups, it is proposed that cross-departmental technical advice links are another source of the information needed to deal with task uncertainty. An empirical test supports the proposition that for high-performing project groups, boundary-spanning technical advice links may compensate for a lack of internal group heterogeneity and vice versa. This is not the case for low-performing project groups. Implications of these finding are presented, including the direction that the open innovation research stream might take to address the findings of this study.