Cross‐boundary working: Implications for HRM theory, methods, and practice

• Date: 01 January 2020
• Author: Nicholas Kinnie,Juani Swart
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12239
• Published date: 01 January 2020

PROVOCATION PAPER

Cross‐boundary working: Implications for HRM

theory, methods, and practice

Nicholas Kinnie |Juani Swart

School of Management, University of Bath,

Bath, UK

Correspondence

Professor Nicholas Kinnie, School of

Management, University of Bath, Bath BA2

7AY, UK.

Email: n.j.kinnie@bath.ac.uk

Abstract

Major changes have taken place in work organisation, which

originate predominantly from working across organisational

boundaries. This paper argues for a more sophisticated

approach to HRM that includes three types of cross‐

boundary working, that is, intraorganisational,

interorganisational, and transorganisational. Herein lies the

contribution of our paper; we argue that we cannot assume

a transition from one type of working to another because

cross‐boundary forms of working coexist. We also need to

understand the tensions of this simultaneity at the levels

of the organisation/network, HRM systems, and the individ-

ual. We consider the impact of the simultaneous existence

of these types of cross‐boundary working for the following:

(a) theory, especially the development of HRM systems; (b)

methods, including an activity‐based unit of analysis; and (c)

practice, where we pay attention to the challenges of con-

trol, collaboration, and consistency.

KEYWORDS

attitudes, cross‐boundary working, HRM systems, organisational

boundaries

1|INTRODUCTION

Transformations in the way work is organised have been so dramatic that the HRM theory designed to study them

has become anachronistic. These changes in work organisation have been characterised in various ways, including

flexible (Atkinson, 1985), boundaryless (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996), fragmented, (Marchington, Grimshaw, Rubery, &

Willmott, 2005), fissured (Weil, 2014), networked (Swart & Kinnie, 2014), and liquid (Clegg & Baumeler, 2010).

Each of these ways of working across organisational boundaries has been discussed in isolation, but there has

Received: 7 June 2017 Revised: 10 January 2019 Accepted: 29 March 2019

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12239

86 © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj Hum Resour Manag J. 2020;30:86–99.