Journal ArticleDOI
Informal and formal channels in boundary‐spanning communication
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This article examined both informal and formal communication patterns of three groups in order to determine whether, in fact, a variety of media are used in boundary-spanning communication, and found that 82.2% of the survey respondents was composed of both formal and informal media.Abstract:
Boundary-spanning communication has been found to be important to various types of organizations and groups as a source of new information and awareness of environmental changes. Although the importance of formal, public channels in building the knowledge base of a field has long been recognized, most studies of boundary-spanning activity have been limited to direct, personal (informal) communication. This study examines both informal and formal communication patterns of three groups in order to determine whether, in fact, a variety of media are used in boundary-spanning communication. The groups selected were the members of three professions which fill intermediary positions between the creators and consumers of cultural products; one located in academia and two in the private sector. Major findings were that: (1) A boundary-spanning structure linking 82.2% of the survey respondents was composed of both informal and formal media. (2) The professions differed in which type of channel was most heavily used, but were similar in their perceptions of the importance of the channels. (3) Individuals central to the informal part of the structure were also more likely to use the formal parts of the structure. (4) Boundary-spanning media were among the five most frequently cited media for all three of the professions. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.read more
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Social factors influencing export initiation in small and medium-sized enterprises
Paul D. Ellis,Anthony Pecotich +1 more
TL;DR: This article examined the influence of antecedent social ties on export behavior in an exploratory cross-case investigation of a sample of small and medium-sized exporters drawn from different industries.
Journal ArticleDOI
Between-group behaviour in health care: gaps, edges, boundaries, disconnections, weak ties, spaces and holes. A systematic review
TL;DR: Gaps offer insights into social structures, and how real world behaviours of participants in workplaces, organisations and institutions are fragile, according to empirical and theoretical work on this phenomenon.
Journal ArticleDOI
Internal and External Communication, Boundary Spanning, and Innovation Adoption: An Over-Time Comparison of Three Explanations of Internal and External Innovation Communication in a New Organizational Form
J. David Johnson,Hui-Jung Chang +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare three differing explanations of the dynamic interre lationships between internal and external innovation-related communication in a new organizational form, and conclude that the three explanations are different in the sense that:
Journal ArticleDOI
Knowledge diffusion in the African context: An institutional theory perspective
Ken Kamoche,Michael Harvey +1 more
TL;DR: The authors argue that multinational companies must eschew the knowledge-transfer approaches that reflect the ethnocentric assumption that codifiable knowledge can be disseminated with little regard to the unique circumstances of the African context and by disregarding culturally embedded tacit knowledge.
Journal ArticleDOI
Conversation and community: the potential of electronic conferences for creating intellectual proximity in distributed learning environments
TL;DR: This paper explored electronic conferences as a medium in which community can develop among students and found that students used the conference environment to extend their educational community, with stronger effect for posters than lurkers.
References
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TL;DR: Aldrich's organizational change model as mentioned in this paper focuses on the processes of variation, selection, retention, and struggle of an organization and its environment, rather than a set of focal organizations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Special Boundary Roles in the Innovation Process.
TL;DR: A version of this paper was presented at the Academy of Management meetings, August 1976 as discussed by the authors, and the author thanks his colleagues David Lewin, Noel Tichy and Michael Ginzberg, and an anonymous reviewer forASQ for their helpful comments and criticism.
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Communication Networks: Toward a New Paradigm for Research
TL;DR: A communication network in a small village of Korea Oryu Li is described, in which basic principles are applied to collectively make decisions about family planning, to illustrate methods of network analysis.
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Communication networks : toward a new paradigm for research
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present what is currently known about communication networks and illustrate methods of network analysis, including matrix manipulation NEGOPY direct factor analysis smallest space analysis and SOCK and COMPLT.