IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v44y2015i4p911-924.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the relationship between multiple team membership and team performance: The role of social networks and collaborative technology

Author

Listed:
  • Bertolotti, Fabiola
  • Mattarelli, Elisa
  • Vignoli, Matteo
  • Macrì, Diego Maria

Abstract

Firms devoted to research and development and innovative activities intensively use teams to carry out knowledge intensive work and increasingly ask their employees to be engaged in multiple teams (e.g., R&D project teams) simultaneously. The literature has extensively investigated the antecedents of single teams performance, but has largely overlooked the effects of multiple team membership (MTM), i.e., the participation of a focal team’s members in multiple teams simultaneously, on the focal team outcomes. In this paper we examine the relationships between team performance, MTM, the use of collaborative technologies (instant messaging), and work-place social networks (external advice receiving). The data collected in the R&D unit of an Italian company support the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between MTM and team performance such that teams whose members are engaged simultaneously in few or many teams experience lower performance. We found that receiving advice from external sources moderated this relationship. When MTM is low or high, external advice receiving has a positive effect, while at intermediate levels of MTM it has a negative effect. Finally, the average use of instant messaging in the team also moderated the relationship such that at low levels of MTM, R&D teams whose members use instant messaging intensively attain higher performance while at high levels of MTM an intense use of instant messaging is associated with lower team performance. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications for innovative firms engaged in multitasking work scenarios.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertolotti, Fabiola & Mattarelli, Elisa & Vignoli, Matteo & Macrì, Diego Maria, 2015. "Exploring the relationship between multiple team membership and team performance: The role of social networks and collaborative technology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 911-924.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:44:y:2015:i:4:p:911-924
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2015.01.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315000219
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.respol.2015.01.019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Katherine M. Chudoba & Mary Beth Watson-Manheim, 2007. "Exploring the Virtual Work Environment: A Process Perspective," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Angel J Salazar & Steve Sawyer (ed.), Handbook Of Information Technology In Organizations And Electronic Markets, chapter 4, pages 57-76, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Jonathon N. Cummings, 2004. "Work Groups, Structural Diversity, and Knowledge Sharing in a Global Organization," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(3), pages 352-364, March.
    3. Anita L. Tucker & Ingrid M. Nembhard & Amy C. Edmondson, 2007. "Implementing New Practices: An Empirical Study of Organizational Learning in Hospital Intensive Care Units," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(6), pages 894-907, June.
    4. Gersick, Connie J. G. & Hackman, J. Richard, 1990. "Habitual routines in task-performing groups," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 65-97, October.
    5. Gupta, Amar & Seshasai, Satwik, 2004. "Toward the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory," Working papers 4455-03, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    6. Simon Rodan & Charles Galunic, 2004. "More than network structure: how knowledge heterogeneity influences managerial performance and innovativeness," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(6), pages 541-562, June.
    7. Hoegl, Martin & Proserpio, Luigi, 2004. "Team member proximity and teamwork in innovative projects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1153-1165, October.
    8. Wageman, Ruth & Gardner, Heidi & Mortensen, Mark, 2012. "Teams Have Changed: Catching Up to the Future," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 48-52, March.
    9. Henrik Bresman, 2010. "External Learning Activities and Team Performance: A Multimethod Field Study," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 81-96, February.
    10. Sinan Aral & Erik Brynjolfsson & Marshall Van Alstyne, 2012. "Information, Technology, and Information Worker Productivity," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(3-part-2), pages 849-867, September.
    11. Ferriani, Simone & Cattani, Gino & Baden-Fuller, Charles, 2009. "The relational antecedents of project-entrepreneurship: Network centrality, team composition and project performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1545-1558, December.
    12. Leroy, Sophie, 2009. "Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 168-181, July.
    13. Tannenbaum, Scott I. & Mathieu, John E. & Salas, Eduardo & Cohen, Debra, 2012. "Teams Are Changing: Are Research and Practice Evolving Fast Enough?," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 2-24, March.
    14. Ray Reagans & Ezra W. Zuckerman, 2001. "Networks, Diversity, and Productivity: The Social Capital of Corporate R&D Teams," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 502-517, August.
    15. Mark Mortensen, 2014. "Constructing the Team: The Antecedents and Effects of Membership Model Divergence," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(3), pages 909-931, June.
    16. Mary E. Zellmer-Bruhn, 2003. "Interruptive Events and Team Knowledge Acquisition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(4), pages 514-528, April.
    17. Bercovitz, Janet & Feldman, Maryann, 2011. "The mechanisms of collaboration in inventive teams: Composition, social networks, and geography," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 81-93, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eisenberg, Julia & Mattarelli, Elisa, 2017. "Building Bridges in Global Virtual Teams: The Role of Multicultural Brokers in Overcoming the Negative Effects of Identity Threats on Knowledge Sharing Across Subgroups," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 399-411.
    2. Mark Mortensen & Martine R. Haas, 2018. "Perspective—Rethinking Teams: From Bounded Membership to Dynamic Participation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 341-355, April.
    3. Oscar Llopis & Mabel Sánchez-Barrioluengo & Julia Olmos-Peñuela & Elena Castro-Martínez, 2018. "Scientists’ engagement in knowledge transfer and exchange: Individual factors, variety of mechanisms and users," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 45(6), pages 790-803.
    4. Jiang, Lingqing & Zhu, Zhen, 2022. "Information exchange and multiple peer groups: A natural experiment in an online community," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 543-562.
    5. Mattarelli, Elisa & Tagliaventi, Maria Rita & Carli, Giacomo & Gupta, Amar, 2017. "The Role of Brokers and Social Identities in the Development of Capabilities in Global Virtual Teams," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 382-398.
    6. Hendrik J. van de Brake & Frank Walter & Floor A. Rink & Peter J. M. D. Essens & Gerben S. van der Vegt, 2020. "Benefits and Disadvantages of Individuals’ Multiple Team Membership: The Moderating Role of Organizational Tenure," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(8), pages 1502-1530, December.
    7. Choi, Yunsik & Delise, Lisa A. & Lee, Brandon W. & Neely, Jerry, 2021. "Effective staffing of projects for reconciling conflict between cost efficiency and quality," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    8. Magalhães, Manuela & Afonso, Óscar, 2017. "A multi-sector growth model with technology diffusion and networks," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 1340-1359.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark Mortensen & Martine R. Haas, 2018. "Perspective—Rethinking Teams: From Bounded Membership to Dynamic Participation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 341-355, April.
    2. Linda Argote & Sunkee Lee & Jisoo Park, 2021. "Organizational Learning Processes and Outcomes: Major Findings and Future Research Directions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(9), pages 5399-5429, September.
    3. Belkhouja, Mustapha & Fattoum, Senda & Yoon, Hyungseok (David), 2021. "Does greater diversification increase individual productivity? The moderating effect of attention allocation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(6).
    4. Henrik Bresman, 2010. "External Learning Activities and Team Performance: A Multimethod Field Study," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 81-96, February.
    5. Alnuaimi, Tufool & Opsahl, Tore & George, Gerard, 2012. "Innovating in the periphery: The impact of local and foreign inventor mobility on the value of Indian patents," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1534-1543.
    6. Forrest Briscoe & Michelle Rogan, 2016. "Coordinating Complex Work: Knowledge Networks, Partner Departures, and Client Relationship Performance in a Law Firm," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(8), pages 2392-2411, August.
    7. Aimée A. Kane, 2010. "Unlocking Knowledge Transfer Potential: Knowledge Demonstrability and Superordinate Social Identity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 643-660, June.
    8. Sinan Aral & Paramveer S. Dhillon, 2023. "What (Exactly) Is Novelty in Networks? Unpacking the Vision Advantages of Brokers, Bridges, and Weak Ties," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(2), pages 1092-1115, February.
    9. Marco Tortoriello & Bill McEvily & David Krackhardt, 2015. "Being a Catalyst of Innovation: The Role of Knowledge Diversity and Network Closure," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(2), pages 423-438, April.
    10. Chauvet, Vincent & Chollet, Barthélemy & Soda, Giuseppe & Huault, Isabelle, 2011. "The contribution of network research to managerial culture and practice," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 321-334.
    11. Lynn Wu, 2013. "Social Network Effects on Productivity and Job Security: Evidence from the Adoption of a Social Networking Tool," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 30-51, March.
    12. Singh, Jasjit, 2008. "Distributed R&D, cross-regional knowledge integration and quality of innovative output," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 77-96, February.
    13. Giuliani, Elisa & Martinelli, Arianna & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2016. "Is Co-Invention Expediting Technological Catch Up? A Study of Collaboration between Emerging Country Firms and EU Inventors," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 192-205.
    14. Fu-Sheng Tsai & Gayle Baugh & Shih-Chieh Fang & Julia Lin, 2014. "Contingent contingency: Knowledge heterogeneity and new product development performance revisited," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 149-169, March.
    15. Cindy Zawadzki, 2011. "L'évolution du fonctionnement de la PME lors de l'introduction du contrôle de gestion : leçons d'un échec," Post-Print hal-00650594, HAL.
    16. Soda, Giuseppe & Zaheer, Akbar & Sun, Xiaoming & Cui, Wentian, 2021. "Brokerage evolution in innovation contexts: Formal structure, network neighborhoods and knowledge," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(10).
    17. Lutter, Mark, 2014. "Creative success and network embeddedness: Explaining critical recognition of film directors in Hollywood, 1900-2010," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/11, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    18. Cristina B. Gibson & Rebekah Dibble, 2013. "Excess May Do Harm: Investigating the Effect of Team External Environment on External Activities in Teams," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 697-715, June.
    19. Woolley, Anita Williams & Bear, Julia B. & Chang, Jin Wook & DeCostanza, Arwen Hunter, 2013. "The effects of team strategic orientation on team process and information search," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 114-126.
    20. Ilse Lindenlaub & Anja Prummer, 2014. "Gender, Social Networks And Performance," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1461, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:44:y:2015:i:4:p:911-924. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.