Where does boundary collide?

In organization theory, a boundary is the edge that separates an organization from its environment, and boundary spanning names the roles and activities that link the two across it. Aldrich and Herker's 1977 Boundary spanning roles and organization structure described how certain people filter incoming information and represent the organization to outsiders, buffering the technical core while connecting it to markets, regulators, and suppliers. The referent is an organizational and social edge, staffed by the people who span it, not the edge points of a mathematical set, the limits a person keeps in relationships, or a thin layer of slowed fluid near a surface.[1]

Unit

One organizational boundary and the roles that span it, described by the information and exchange they carry

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Studied through role analysis, surveys of boundary spanners, and records of the information and transactions crossing the edge

In topology, the boundary of a set is the collection of points that lie on its edge: every neighbourhood of such a point contains at least one point inside the set and at least one point outside it, so the boundary is what the set shares with the closure of its complement. Munkres's Topology gives the standard treatment, defining the boundary as the closure of the set minus its interior. The referent is a precise collection of edge points fixed by the surrounding space, and it has nothing to do with an organization's edge, a person's limits, or a fluid's slowed layer beyond the shared word.[2]

Unit

The set of edge points of a given set, fixed by the surrounding topology

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Derived formally as the closure of the set minus its interior, within a stated topological space

In personality psychology, a boundary is the limit a person keeps between the self and others and between different parts of their own mind. Hartmann's 1991 Boundaries in the mind proposed that people differ along a dimension from thin to thick boundaries, where thin boundaries mean thoughts, feelings, and relationships blend and merge readily, and thick boundaries mean they stay separate and firmly kept. The referent is a psychological limit within and around a person, measured by questionnaire, not an organization's edge, the edge points of a set, or a slowed layer of fluid.[3]

Unit

A person's characteristic thickness of psychological boundaries, on a thin-to-thick dimension

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Assessed by self-report, most often the Boundary Questionnaire that scores thin versus thick boundaries

In fluid dynamics, the boundary layer is the thin region of fluid next to a solid surface where friction slows the flow, so the speed rises from zero at the wall to the free stream value across a narrow band. Prandtl introduced the idea in his 1904 paper on fluid motion at very small friction, showing that viscosity matters mainly inside this layer while the flow outside behaves almost as if it were frictionless. The referent is a physical region of slowed fluid set by viscosity, and it is unrelated to an organization's edge, the edge points of a mathematical set, or a personality limit.[4]

Unit

The near-wall region of retarded fluid, scaled by its thickness

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Characterised by its thickness, velocity profile, and Reynolds number, from flow measurements or the boundary-layer equations