Dynamic Boundary Permeability Theory: An Episodic, Threshold-Based Model of Role Transitions

Scholars have long recognized that employees construct boundaries around roles to conserve and effectively deploy their resources toward fulfilling the responsibilities of those roles. Despite this, these boundaries can be permeated, where one role intersects and siphons the resources associated with another. To date, however, theory has conceptualized this as a relatively static process. Challenging this implicit consensus, we propose that role boundaries are dynamically permeable; they can be breached by certain stimuli at certain times. Drawing inspiration from the biological sciences, we build a staged, unfolding model of boundary permeations, integrating prevailing boundary theory with conservation of resources theory and event systems theory. Our theory proposes that boundary permeations occur when a stimulus exceeds the current role’s permeability threshold; we further explicate personal and contextual factors that impact the strength of the intersecting role. Following a boundary permeation, we theorize that employees engage in action consistent with the permeation before entering a defensive mode to recover lost resources. In developing our theory, we not only challenge the view that boundary permeations are static but also identify the processes by which boundary permeation episodes unfold. In so doing, we focus greater attention on the temporal dynamics underlying boundary permeations.