Dynamic Boundary Permeability Theory: An Episodic, Threshold-Based Model of Role Transitions
提出角色边界是动态可渗透的，当刺激超过当前角色的渗透阈值时发生边界渗透，并描述了渗透后员工的行为模式，对研究工作与生活平衡的学者有参考价值。
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.