title: Public health managers: ambassadors, coordinators, scouts, or guards?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Middle managers are increasingly required to work with, and between, many groups within an organization. This work is known as "boundary spanning," and it has been shown to support information flow throughout the organization. This work has also been reported to assist with the coordination of tasks that require contributions from multiple groups. However, to our knowledge, boundary spanning has never been studied in a public health setting.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To conduct an exploratory study of public health managers' perspectives regarding the frequency with which they engage in boundary-spanning behaviors and the importance of these behaviors in their role.
  
  
  METHODS
  A mixed-methods approach, involving focus group discussion and independent surveys, was used to capture both qualitative and quantitative data.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fourteen administrative and team public health managers.
  
  
  METHODS
  An urban-rural public health unit in Ontario, Canada.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Many boundary-spanning behaviors were reported to be frequently practiced, and most of the behaviors were identified by the participants as important to their role. Further analysis indicated that the participants' more frequently engaged in the ambassador, coordinator, and scout categories of boundary spanning than behaviors in the guard category.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although only examined with a small sample, boundary spanning appears to be an essential function for public health managers (similar to their colleagues in the private sector). These findings present a rationale and an opportunity for public health leaders to set organizational conditions that foster the most positive type of boundary-spanning, ambassadorial behaviors, which, in turn, can improve group performance.
authors.affiliation: Middlesex-London Health Unit (Mr Graham and Ms McCann); and TeamWork Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario (Dr Allen), London, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McCann
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Allen
mesh_terms: D000288:Administrative Personnel; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007324:Institutional Management Teams; D009864:Ontario; D009874:Operations Research; D024382:Professional Role; D011635:Public Health Administration