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Becoming a Competent Boundary Spanning Public Servant

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The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant

Abstract

Growing interdependencies and cross-boundary collaborations are key characteristics of contemporary public sector. In the field of public management and governance, we therefore see an increasing interest in research and practice in boundary spanning behavior in order to align people, organizations, and processes. However, practicing boundary spanning behavior is not straightforward; it demands certain skills, traits, and experiences of competent public servants working in collaborative and interorganizational settings. These so-called boundary spanning competencies are fragmentedly discussed in the literature. What do future public servants need to learn and to master in this respect? To what extent can they be trained in being competent boundary spanning public servants? Or must a boundary spanner have a certain personality? Or does boundary spanning come with years of experience? This chapter goes deeper into these questions and provides an overview of different boundary spanning competencies. First, different types of boundary spanning activities are discussed. Next, a discussion and review of relevant boundary spanning competencies will follow. Subsequently, it is discussed to what extent these competencies and characteristics can actually be trained and what might be educational methods in this.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Ingmar van Meerkerk & Jurian Edelenbos

Authors
  1. Ingmar van Meerkerk
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  2. Jurian Edelenbos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ingmar van Meerkerk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Acton, ACT, Australia

    Helen Sullivan

  2. UNSW Australia, Campbell, ACT, Australia

    Helen Dickinson

  3. College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Hayley Henderson

Section Editor information

  1. Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Paul Williams

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© 2019 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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van Meerkerk, I., Edelenbos, J. (2019). Becoming a Competent Boundary Spanning Public Servant. In: Sullivan, H., Dickinson, H., Henderson, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03008-7_39-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03008-7_39-1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03008-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03008-7

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