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Article: Supervisor Communication Practices And Boundary Spanner Role Ambiguity.
- Article from:
- Journal of Managerial Issues
- Article date:
- March 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Pittsburg State University - Department of Economics. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Salespeople, customer-contact service employees, and other boundary spanning employees often experience high levels of role ambiguity because they (1) operate between the firm and its environment, (2) produce innovative solutions to non-routine problems, and (3) experience differing role expectations from inside and outside the organization (Kahn et at., 1964; Singh, 1993). Babin and Boles (1998) observe that front-line boundary spanners represent a rapidly expanding proportion of a firm's total number of employees and that they occupy a critical role in influencing the customer's experience with the firm. Because role ambiguity is negatively associated with important job ...