The Critical Role of The Cultural Boundary Spanner for Pluralist Organisations

In management studies, we are just beginning to address the pluralist turn. One area where this pluralist perspective on networking is gaining ground lies in the field of boundary spanning studies. This paper examines recent boundary spanning literature to capture some of the contemporary academic directions in how boundary spanning occurs in practice in heterogeneous intercultural contexts and identifies the importance of examining the individual cultural boundary spanning role now critical in contemporary global business. This paper posits that the requirement for organisational agility that characterizes international management is now placing emphasis on the role of the individual cultural boundary spanner and outlines a future research direction that arguably will require a more pluralist conception of the boundary role.