Boundary management tactics and logics of action: The case of peer-supportproviders

From a qualitative study of flight attendants volunteering as support provi ders in a peer-based employee assistance program, we derive a typology of t he boundary management tactics used by peer-support providers to maintain a comfortable distance from help recipients and propose a grounded theory ex plaining providers' selection of tactics. After identifying two factors ass ociated with tactic selection (personal experience and social structure), w e demonstrate that support providers' cognitive orientations, or logics of action, mediate the relationship between these factors and tactic selection . We identify four types of support providers' logics of action and show ho w a provider's logic may predict his or her preference for a particular bou ndary management tactic.