Benefits and costs of employee boundary-spanning behavior: A meta-analytic review

Employee boundary-spanning behavior is critically important for organizations. Numerous studies have examined the relationships between employee boundary-spanning behavior and work-related outcomes. However, the findings are inconsistent among studies. This meta-analysis investigated the relationships between of employee boundary-spanning behavior and work attitude, performance, innovation, stress, and burnout, and also examined potential moderators and mediating mechanisms for those relationships based on social exchange theory. We meta-analyzed both Chinese and English primary studies on employee boundary- spanning behavior. Studies were identified with key words including “Boundary spanning”, “Boundary spanning activities/Boundary spanning activity”, “Boundary spanning behavior”, etc. , in English databases including Web of Science, ProQuest (Dissertation), EBSCO, Wiley, Sage and Chinese databases of CNKI and CSSCI. Finally, 52 independent samples from 50 empirical studies (with a total sample N = 14366) were included. We chose a random-effect model to conduct the meta-analysis using the R package Psychmeta (Core team, 2020). The results showed considerable heterogeneity among the 52 independent samples, according to the heterogeneity test. The publication bias test was conducted using Egger's test, Begg test, and Failsafe number, which revealed that there was no substantial publication bias in the studies. With the Hunter-Schmidt’s meta-analytic method, employee boundary spanning behavior had significant relationships with job satisfaction and organizational commitment (between 0. 34 to 0. 41) and performance outcomes (between 0. 19 to 0. 31), as well as a small positive relationship with role stress (= 0. 14). It had no significant relationship with emotional exhaustion (= -0. 10, 95% CI = -0. 25, 0. 05). Employees' boundary-spanning behavior has both benefits and costs. Employee type (knowledge workers-non-knowledge workers), individualism-collectivism, and power distance moderated the relationships between employee's boundary-spanning behavior and its outcomes. The relationships between employee boundary-spanning behavior and performance and innovation were stronger for knowledge workers than for nonknowledge workers, but the relationships between employee boundary-spanning behavior and job satisfaction and role stress were stronger for nonknowledge workers than for knowledge workers. Collectivism positively moderated the relationship between employee boundary-spanning behavior and job satisfaction, performance, innovation. The relationships between employee boundary-spanning behavior and job satisfaction, performance, and role stress were stronger for high power distance regions than low power distance regions. Additionally, a meta mediation analysis was conducted to examine whether work attitudes partially mediated the relationship of employee boundary-spanning behavior with work outcomes. The results revealed that employee boundary-spanning behavior had indirect impacts on performance and innovation, while having suppressing effects on stress and exhaustion. We discuss the important implications for future research and organizational practices.