Informal and Formal Channels in Boundary-Spanning Communication

Boundary-spanning communication has been found to be important to various types of organizations’and groups as a source of new information and awareness of environmental changes. Although the importance of formal, public channels in building the knowledge base of a field has long been recognized, most studies of boundary-spanning activity have been limited to direct, personal (informal) communication. This study examines both informal and formal communication patterns of three groups in order to determine whether, in fact, a variety of media are used in boundary-spanning communication. The groups selected were the members of three professions which fill intermediary positions between the creators and consumers of cultural products; one located in academia and two in the private sector. Major findings were that: (1) A boundary-spanning structure linking 82.2% of the survey respondents was composed of both informal and formal media. (2) The professions differed in which type of channel was most heavily used, but were similar in their perceptions of the importance of the channels. (3) Individuals central to the informal part of the structure were also more likely to use the formal parts of the structure. (4) Boundaryspanning media were among the five most frequently cited media for all three of the professions.