Organizational Boundary Spanning and Brokering as Business Innovation - An Empirical Analysis of a Software Development Company

Boundary-crossing individuals, either called boundary spanners or brokers , are important for facilitating knowledge sharing between internal organizational units and between companies and their external environment. While previous literature recommends strategizing and institutionalizing the use of such boundary-crossing individuals, it gives no specific recommendations or guidelines for how to do so. In this paper, we present findings from an extensive field study in a medium-sized software development company. We present the example of a dedicated organizational unit as a business innovation whose members act as both internal knowledge brokers between units and as boundary spanners between the dynamic, flexible environment and the non-flexible, more static world of the company. We analyze how and why this team became a success within the company, but we also show the downsides and problems related to this strategy and approach