Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2000-07
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
This research report compares three differing explanations of the dynamic interre
lationships between internal and external innovation-related communication in a
new organizational form. In the functional specialization explanation, individuals
are said to focus on the mix of internal and/or external communication dictated
by their formal positions. The communication stars explanation suggests that indi
viduals maintain similar levels of communication in both networks. The cyclical
model posits a more dynamic pattern that shifts back and forth between internal
and external communication, depending on the consequences of their prior commu
nication behavior. The new organizational form examined for three years was the
Cancer Information Service, a geographically dispersed federal government health
information program. Our results indicated that there was a lagged effect for the
communication stars explanation.
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