Exploring the Effects of Network Duality of Group Boundary Spanners on Group Effectiveness

This research explored the dual nature of boundary spanners’ network characteristics in predicting group effectiveness. The results from a survey of 86 work groups at four Korea-based design organizations revealed that a group was more effective when the group’s boundary spanners were central in the internal network within the group, connected to outside contacts in the broader range of nonredundant outside groups, and connected to a greater number of outside contacts with high formal status. In contrast, our results suggested that it was counterproductive for a group’s functioning when the group’s boundary spanners relatively dominated external relationships with people in different groups in the organization, and when group boundary spanners’ outside contacts were more connected with each other. We also found the moderating effects of the group’s internal network characteristic. The group’s network reachability strengthened the positive effects of boundary spanners’ internal centrality on group performance and mitigated the negative effects of boundary spanners’ dominance of external relationships on group effectiveness.