The benefits boundary spanners offer organizations by bridging information silos are well documented. However, informational boundary spanning also implies crossing organizational territories, as employees seek advice from others outside their supervisors' control. Applying a territoriality theory lens, we develop new insights about when and why supervisors may view their subordinates' informational boundary-spanning activities unfavorably and attempt to undermine boundary spanners. We argue that undermining results from supervisors perceiving the boundary spanning of their employees as weakening their control over their organizational territory. We further argue that subordinates who seek advice across organizational boundaries without also seeking advice from their supervisor are more likely to be seen by their supervisors as having negative intentions when engaging in boundary spanning, which increases their risk of being undermined. We find support for our arguments in a field study and in a scenario experiment. Our results provide new insights into the potentially negative reactions from supervisors toward employees who engage in boundary spanning. We discuss how these insights contribute to the boundary spanning literature, to territoriality theory, and to the leadership literature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

---

保护他们的地盘：主管何时以及为何破坏员工边界跨越。

边界跨越者通过弥合信息孤岛为组织提供的好处有据可查。然而，跨越信息边界也意味着跨越组织领域，因为员工寻求主管控制之外的其他人的建议。运用地域性理论的视角，我们对主管何时以及为何会不利地看待其下属的信息跨界活动并试图破坏跨界者提出新的见解。我们认为，主管认为员工的边界跨越削弱了他们对组织领域的控制，从而导致破坏。我们进一步认为，跨组织边界寻求建议而不征求上司建议的下属更有可能被上司视为在跨越边界时有消极意图，这增加了他们被破坏的风险。我们在实地研究和情景实验中找到了对我们论点的支持。我们的结果提供了新的见解，以了解主管对从事跨界工作的员工的潜在负面反应。我们将讨论这些见解如何对跨越边界的文献、地域性理论和领导力文献做出贡献。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。我们在实地研究和情景实验中找到了对我们论点的支持。我们的结果提供了新的见解，以了解主管对从事跨界工作的员工的潜在负面反应。我们将讨论这些见解如何对跨越边界的文献、地域性理论和领导力文献做出贡献。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。我们在实地研究和情景实验中找到了对我们论点的支持。我们的结果提供了新的见解，以了解主管对从事跨界工作的员工的潜在负面反应。我们将讨论这些见解如何对跨越边界的文献、地域性理论和领导力文献做出贡献。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。