Designing the Model of Boundary Spanning in Higher Education with Meta-synthesis Method

The aim of the research was to design a model of Boundary Spanning in the higher education using Meta-synthesis method.

The research was a qualitative research and was carried out in a meta- synthesis method. The studied population is the researches published in the years 2012 to 2023 in English and in the years 1392 to 1402 in Persian in the field of Boundary Spanning in higher education in the scientific databases of Magiran, Noormagz & SID, Taylor & Francis, Sage Wiley, Scopus, ProQuest, Emerald, Elsevier, Science Direct, DOAJ, Springer. After searching, evaluating and eliminating, among 320 articles, 34 articles were finally selected for final analysis. The research was conducted using Sandelowski and Barroso's model. Analysis of articles was done by coding method. Validation of the findings was done based on expert coding and Kappa coefficient calculation.

Academic boundary spanning at the organizational level includes: institutional and structural issues, strategies, results and challenges, and at the individual level it includes the role and duties, competencies and characteristics of the academic boundary spanner.

Academic boundary spanning based on strategies, institutional and structural issues, characteristics, skills and abilities of faculty members leads to positive results and consequences such as agility, flexibility, innovation and production of creative ideas. Increasing social capital leads to the expansion of the use of scientific knowledge in decision-making. So, the university and its members are facing challenges such as organizational, individual, intrapersonal and interpersonal, cross-border, job-role. By managing challenges, the university can finally fulfill its mission in relation to industry and society and maintain its survival in the field of competition with other universities.