Multiple teams, multiple projects, multiple groups at the intersection of (multiple) research fields: A bibliometric study

Multi-teaming is a concept studied across a variety of disciplines. While using a bibliometric approach on 255 research papers extracted from Web of Science, we aimed to depict the architecture of the multi-teaming concept across academic disciplines and time. Results of citation, co-citation and bibliographic coupling analyses identified four major fields looking at the concept of multi-teaming. The fields emerged over time from fragmentation to integration and acknowledging similarities. We identify gaps and propose (multi)-disciplinary research ideas that can benefit the field of multi-teaming.

Why serendipitous informal knowledge sharing interactions are key to boundary spanning and creativity

BACKGROUND

Informal Knowledge Sharing Interactions (IKSI) are particularly valuable for innovation projects if they connect partners who are categorically, socially and formally distant from each other. Then the chances are higher that partners possess non-redundant knowledge and can thus open up new perspectives. By improving their knowledge supply, IKSI enhance the success, job satisfaction and well-being of employees in knowledge-intensive industries. So far, however, it is unclear how such interactions between heterogeneous partners emerge.

OBJECTIVE

The paper examines the formation of IKSI and develops the argument that serendipitous IKSI are more likely than planned IKSI to connect heterogeneous partners and open up new perspectives.

METHODS

The paper develops the argument in detail and empirically grounded by drawing together the unconnected literatures on the formation and impact of IKSI. Furthermore, the argument is empirically tested using 132 IKSI from developers collected with event-based diaries.

RESULTS

In line with the conceptual work, the empirical analysis shows that serendipitous IKSI are more likely than planned ones to open up new perspectives.

CONCLUSION

Serendipitous IKSI are of particular significance and require appropriate promotion in order to enhance innovative capability. The increasing virtualization of work is creating opportunities and challenges in this regard.

Multiple Team Membership, Performance, and Confidence in Estimation Tasks

Multiple team membership (MTM) is a form of work organization extensively used nowadays to flexibly deploy human resources across multiple simultaneous projects. Individual members bring in their cognitive resources in these multiple teams and at the same time use the resources and competencies developed while working together. We test in an experimental study whether working in MTM as compared to a single team yields more individual performance benefits in estimation tasks. Our results fully support the group-to-individual (G-I) transfer of learning, yet the hypothesized benefits of knowledge variety and broader access to meta-knowledge relevant to the task in MTM as compared to single teams were not supported. In addition, we show that individual estimates improve only when members are part of groups with low or average collective estimation errors, while confidence in individual estimates significantly increases only when the collective confidence in the group estimates is average or high. The study opens valuable venues for using the dynamic model of G-I transfer of learning to explore individual learning in MTM.

Empirical Study on the Relationship between Effective Following Behavior and Derived Creative Work Behavior: A Moderating Role of Perceived Organizational Support and Sustainable Leadership

The leader of an organization and its members together constitute a binary structure of the main body of the organization and achievement of their goals. The existing literature mainly focuses on the characteristics and following behavior of members. Although the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory uniquely explains the relationship between sustainable leaders and followers, it cannot as easily explain the creative work behavior of followers. This paper proposes that effective following behavior can stimulate the intrinsic motivation of followers and make this consistent with their work motivation, thereby producing creative work behavior and leading to the more effective achievement of organizational goals. Moreover, it demonstrates the internal relationships and mechanisms of action between effective following behavior and creative work behavior. Taking the two dimensions of effective following behavior as independent variables and the three dimensions of creative work behavior as dependent variables, a group of hypotheses were presented. The moderating role of the perceived organizational support and sustainable leadership in the relationship between effective following behavior and creative work behavior was demonstrated, and two groups of hypotheses were proposed. Data from 409 surveys, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. The empirical results show that in the organization the radical and incremental creative work behavior of the followers correlates positively with their active, participatory following behavior and the non-blind following behavior. The followers’ non-creative routine work behavior correlates negatively with their active participatory following behavior and has no significant correlation with the non-blind following behavior. In conclusion, sustainable leadership and perceived organizational support can therefore strengthen the relationship between actively participating in following behavior and creative work behavior and weaken the relationship between non-blind following behavior and creative work behavior.

Teams in Small Organizations: Conceptual, Methodological, and Practical Considerations

Research on teams and teamwork has flourished in the last few decades. Much of what we know about teams and teamwork comes from research using short-term student teams in the lab, teams in larger organizations, and, more recently, teams in rather unique and extreme environments. The context in which teams operate influences team composition, processes, and effectiveness. Small organizations are an understudied and often overlooked context that presents a rich opportunity to augment our understanding of teams and team dynamics. In this paper, we discuss how teams and multi-team systems in small organizations may differ from those found in larger organizations. Many of these differences present both methodological and practical challenges to studying team composition and processes in small complex organizational settings. We advocate for applying and accepting new and less widely used methodological approaches to advance our understanding of the science of teams and teamwork in such contexts.