The role of boundary spanners in managing the environment

Schools depend on a host of individuals – “boundary spanners” -- who work in and between different groups and organizational settings (Wenger, 1998). Although school personnel often view “boundary spanners” like district administrators, coaches, professional development consultants and other “outsiders” with suspicion, Meredith Honig (2007) describes how these individuals can play a crucial role in supporting improvement efforts by serving as:

• “bridges” who relay information, resources, and expertise from one group or setting to another
• “buffers” who try to reduce the extent to which one group or organization is inspected, monitored and pressured by another.

Honig argues that district administrators, in particular, can advance the goals and interests of schools by advocating for and assisting in transforming some district policies and practices and by helping schools understand how to work within existing central office policies. Individual administrators can play these roles even within district bureaucracies considered to be resistant and unsupportive and even though formal job descriptions often emphasizes their work as monitors, “compliance officers”, and service providers not as “boundary spanners.”