| This research project examined manager use of salespeople as boundary spanners within two manufacturing organizations, with manager-functional responsibilities as the lens of perspective. As organizations continue to move towards unpredictability in changing environments, boundary spanners help the organization maintain relevance and connection to the external environment through the feedback loop that they help to facilitate. By segmenting managers into groups by throughput function or output function, the study examined how different functional managers used salespeople to fulfill boundary spanner duties in different ways. The study also sought to identify how organizational use of the salesperson as a boundary spanner influenced the organization's market leadership.;The study employed one-on-one, in-depth, in-person interviews with senior managers within the manufacturing organizations. Ten managers within one manufacturing organization were interviewed on site of the organization. The number of respondents from Organization 2 was limited; therefore, in this study, the researcher presents findings primarily from the first organization.;The study concluded that salespeople held the broadest role that the company used for shaping the industry environment, influencing and communicating customer needs, influencing product design, and providing feedback and support to multiple links in the supply chain. The salesperson serves as a link between various groups: with the sales group, with the customers he or she serves, with his organization, and with other salespeople within the environment. |
