The Dynamics of Team Learning: Harmony and Rhythm in Teamwork Arrangements for Innovation

Innovation teams must navigate inherent tensions between different learning activities to produce high levels of performance. Yet, we know little about how teams combine these activities-notably reflexive, experimental, vicarious, and contextual learning-most effectively over time. In this article, we integrate research on teamwork episodes with insights from music theory to develop a new theoretical perspective on team dynamics, which explains how team activities can produce harmony, dissonance, or rhythm in teamwork arrangements that lead to either positive or negative effects on overall performance. We first tested our theory in a field study using longitudinal data from 102 innovation teams at a Fortune Global 500 company; then, we replicated and elaborated our theory in a study of 61 MBA project teams at an elite North American university. Results show that some learning activities can occur within the same teamwork episode to have harmonious positive effects on team performance, while other activities combine to have dissonant negative effects when occurring in the same episode. We argue that dissonant activities must be spread across teamwork episodes to help teams achieve a positive rhythm of team learning over time. Our findings contribute to theory on team dynamics, team learning, and ambidexterity.

Detrimental Collaborations in Creative Work: Evidence from Economics

Prior research on collaboration and creativity often assumes that individuals choose to collaborate to improve the quality of their output. Given the growing role of collaboration and autonomous teams in creative work, the validity of this assumption has important implications for organizations. We argue that in the presence of a collaboration credit premium—when the sum of fractional credit allocated to each collaborator exceeds 100%—individuals may choose to work together even when the project output is of low quality or when its prospects are diminished by collaborating. We test our argument on a sample of economists in academia using the norm of alphabetical ordering of authors’ surnames on academic articles as an instrument for selection into collaboration. This norm means that economists whose family name begins with a letter from the beginning of the alphabet receive systematically more credit for collaborative work than economists whose family name begins with a letter from the end of the alphabet. We show that, in the presence of a credit premium, individuals may choose to collaborate, even if this choice decreases output quality. Thus, collaboration can create a misalignment between the incentives of creative workers and the prospects of the project.

The Theory and Measurement of Expertise-Based Problem Solving in Organizational Teams: Revisiting Demonstrability

The current paper revisits and builds upon task demonstrability, which defines the criteria necessary for groups to choose a correct response if any member prefers that response. We identify boundary conditions of the current conceptualization of task demonstrability with respect to its use in understanding modern organizational teams. Specifically, we argue that, in its current form, task demonstrability is not optimally suited to studying ongoing teams in which member expertise varies and teams work to complete complex multifaceted tasks. To address this issue, we provide a revisited perspective on demonstrability. We specify the nomological network of revisited demonstrability and recast each of its criteria in a form that preserves the original intent of the construct, but has broader applicability, particularly to organizational contexts. We then discuss theoretical implications and managerial applications of the construct. Finally, noting that there is no standard assessment tool for demonstrability (original or revisited), we develop and validate a measure to facilitate future research.

Does size matter? The effects of public sector organizational size’ on knowledge management processes and operational efficiency

Purpose

Firm size is an important contingency variable in macro-organizational studies. Several questions arise in relation to knowledge management and organizational size that is critical to both public and private organizations. Unfortunately, despite its significance, all or most of the studies that examined the effects of organizational size’ on knowledge management have been in the private sector. This paper aims to empirically study the effects of organizational size on the key knowledge management processes and subsequent operational efficiency derived from its implementation in the public sector.

Design/methodology/approach

A structured country-wide survey of United Arab Emirates public sector organizations was conducted. The 383 completed responses obtained were then analysed to assess the hypothesized differences in the implementation of knowledge management processes (knowledge acquisition, knowledge creation, knowledge capture, knowledge storage and retrieval, knowledge sharing, knowledge utilization) and its impact on the operational efficiency across small and medium, large and very large public sector organizations.

Findings

The results revealed that the extent of implementation of all six knowledge management processes and operational efficiency followed an inverted “V” pattern, in which, both knowledge management processes and operational efficiency was found to increase while transitioning from small and medium entities to large entities, but was found to decrease while transitioning from large to very large entities. In terms of relationships, while all knowledge management processes had a significant positive impact on the operational efficiency of the public sector, the ability to derive operational efficiency from knowledge management processes was found to be the highest for very large public sector organizations.

Practical implications

The novel findings are useful for practitioners and policymakers, especially those overseeing a country’s knowledge management initiatives to devise strategies, policies and support mechanisms to ensure public sector organizations, regardless of their size, can implement efficient and effective knowledge management processes to improve their operational efficiency.

Originality/value

The study is arguably the first comprehensive attempt to understand the impact of organizational size on knowledge management in the public sector.

Extemporaneous Coordination in Specialist Teams: The Familiarity Complementarity

Team production is ubiquitous in the economy, but managing teams effectively remains a challenge for many organizations. This paper studies how familiarity among teammates influences the performance of specialist teams, relative to nonspecialist teams. Applying theories of team production to contexts where team members coordinate interdependent activities extemporaneously, we develop predictions about factors that shift the marginal returns to specialization along two dimensions of familiarity: social familiarity and functional familiarity. We test our hypotheses in the context of Defence of the Ancients 2 (DOTA2), a major e-sports game where, in some formats, players are exogenously assigned to five-person teams. After analyzing nearly 6.5 million matches, we find that specialist teams are relatively more successful when members are more socially and functionally familiar with one another. The results suggest that the plug-and-play perspective on specialist teams is incomplete; rather, specialization and familiarity are complements in dynamic environments where team members coordinate extemporaneously.

Funded: Financial support from the UCL School of Management and Worcester Polytechnic Institute is gratefully acknowledged.

How Team Structure Can Enhance Performance: Team Longevity's Moderating Effect and Team Coordination's Mediating Effect

Teams are more or less structured in function. Whether team structure is beneficial or harmful for the teams entail debates in current literature. Past studies mainly investigate the effects of team structure through learning or creativity. In this study, we tend to examine the effect of team structure on team performance through team coordination. We conducted two independent field studies with samples of 56 and 67 work teams to test our hypotheses. In both two substudies, we found team structure positively affect team performance by improving team coordination. Moreover, we found team longevity was able to moderate the relationship between team structure and team performance through team coordination, such that the positive relationship between team structure and team coordination were more significant when team longevity was high rather than low.

Pursuing sustainable development with knowledge management in public sector

Purpose

Knowledge management (KM) is increasingly becoming critical to public sector organizations as it is to private sector organizations. This is because public sector organizations are increasingly held accountable for their actions and are forced to move away from traditional bureaucratic approaches to more managerial ones. For instance, public sector is facing pressure to improve its operational efficiency such as productivity, lead time and expenditure. Similarly, it is also facing pressure to improve its transparency, trust, reliability and accountability, which are key elements of sustainable development (SD). The purpose of this study therefore is to understand the intricate relationship between KM processes, operational efficiency and SD in the public sector.

Design/methodology/approach

A framework consisting of eight constructs (knowledge acquisition, knowledge creation, knowledge capture, knowledge storage and retrieval, knowledge sharing, knowledge utilization, operational efficiency and SD) and their underlying items was developed through an extensive literature review. Using 383 usable responses collected through a structured questionnaire from the UAE public sector, the constructs and framework were first validated and then the current level of implementation/achievement of KM processes, operational efficiency and SD was assessed along with the hypothesized relationships between the constructs.

Findings

The findings show that KM processes had a positive and significant direct impact on operational efficiency and SD. Also, operational efficiency was found to strongly mediate the relationship between KM processes and SD.

Practical implications

The findings are expected to help UAE public sector organizations devise strategies and policy interventions to align and improve their KM processes for achieving operational efficiency and SD. Public sectors looking to focus on SD must focus on KM processes and strive to improve stakeholder engagement, which is a vital aspect of SD.

Originality/value

Integration of KM processes, operational efficiency and SD has not been attempted previously and hence constitutes the novelty of this work.

It's how we communicate! Exploring face-to-face versus electronic communication networks in multidisciplinary teams

BACKGROUND

Previous research suggests that multidisciplinary team communication networks enhance knowledge exchange, learning, and quality of care in health organizations. However, little is known about team members' reliance on face-to-face versus electronic-based communication networks for information and knowledge exchange.

PURPOSE

The aim of the study was to describe patterns of face-to-face versus electronic-based communication networks in a multidisciplinary team and to explore the relationships between team communication networks and performance, measured as promptness of treatment implementation.

METHODOLOGY

We collected data on work-based communication among members of a multidisciplinary tumor board (MDT) in a large Italian research hospital. A social network survey was administered in 2016 to all board members to gather network data on face-to-face interaction and the use of electronically based communication channels (e-mail, text messages, and WhatsApp) for sharing clinical knowledge. Twenty physicians (71%) completed the survey. Archival data were accessed to obtain detailed information about 222 clinical cases discussed over a 1-year period during weekly MDT meetings. Minutes of board meetings were used to link all discussed cases to team members. We used the multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure (MR-QAP) to study associations between team member characteristics and communication networks. Negative binomial regression was employed to test relationships between team communication networks and performance.

RESULTS

MDT members relied on different communication channels for knowledge sharing. The geographical proximity of team members positively predicted the frequency of face-to-face interaction. Physicians' seniority was related to the use of WhatsApp as a communication channel; greater interaction of this type was observed between team members of different seniority. Performance was related positively to face-to-face communication networks but negatively to communication via WhatsApp.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Although team communication networks are important for knowledge exchange, health administrators must pay attention to the increasing propensity of team members to rely on electronic-based communication. The use of these easy-to-use tools can hinder the quality of group discussion and debate.

Leadership in crisis situations: merging the interdisciplinary silos

Purpose Complex clinical situations, involving multiple medical specialists, create potential for tension or lack of clarity over leadership roles and may result in miscommunication, errors and poor patient outcomes. Even though copresence has been shown to overcome some differences among team members, the coordination literature provides little guidance on the relationship between coordination and leadership in highly specialized health settings. The purpose of this paper is to determine how different specialties involved in critical medical situations perceive the role of a leader and its contribution to effective crisis management, to better define leadership and improve interdisciplinary leadership and education. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative study was conducted featuring purposively sampled, semi-structured interviews with 27 physicians, from three different specialties involved in crisis resource management in pediatric centers across Canada: Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Otolaryngology and Anesthesia. A total of three researchers independently organized participant responses into categories. The categories were further refined into conceptual themes through iterative negotiation among the researchers. Findings Relatively "structured" (predictable) cases were amenable to concrete distributed leadership - the performance by micro-teams of specialized tasks with relative independence from each other. In contrast, relatively "unstructured" (unpredictable) cases required higher-level coordinative leadership - the overall management of the context and allocations of priorities by a designated individual. Originality/value Crisis medicine relies on designated leadership over highly differentiated personnel and unpredictable events. This challenges the notion of organic coordination and upholds the validity of a concept of leadership for crisis medicine that is not reducible to simple coordination. The intersection of predictability of cases with types of leadership can be incorporated into medical simulation training to develop non-technical skills crisis management and adaptive leaderships skills.