Boundary-Spanning Activity and Employee Reactions: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Boundary-spanning activity was studied in a large manufacturing company through a sample of 192 managers, engineers, and supervisors. Contrary to prior theory and research, this study found boundary-spanning activity unrelated to role conflict or ambiguity and positively related to job satisfac-tion for the total sample. Boundary-spanning activity was also positively related to a number of job characteristics for the total sample. Marked dif-ferences in boundary-spanning activity and its relationships with other variables, however, were found across occupational levels. While managers and engineers generally had boundary-spanning activity related to high levels of job satisfaction and job characteristics, first-level supervisors had boundary-spanning activity related to higher role conflict and lower job satisfaction with opportunities for promotion.

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