IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2203.09157.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Dynamic groups in complex task environments: To change or not to change a winning team?

Author

Listed:
  • Dar'io Blanco-Fern'andez
  • Stephan Leitner
  • Alexandra Rausch

Abstract

Organisations rely upon group formation to solve complex tasks, and groups often adapt to the demands of the task they face by changing their composition periodically. Previous research comes to ambiguous results regarding the effects of group adaptation on task performance. This paper aims to understand the impact of group adaptation, defined as a process of periodically changing a group's composition, on complex task performance and considers the moderating role of individual learning and task complexity in this relationship. We base our analyses on an agent-based model of adaptive groups in a complex task environment based on the NK-framework. The results indicate that reorganising well-performing groups might be beneficial, but only if individual learning is restricted. However, there are also cases in which group adaptation might unfold adverse effects. We provide extensive analyses that shed additional light on and, thereby, help explain the ambiguous results of previous research.

Suggested Citation

  • Dar'io Blanco-Fern'andez & Stephan Leitner & Alexandra Rausch, 2022. "Dynamic groups in complex task environments: To change or not to change a winning team?," Papers 2203.09157, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2203.09157
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2203.09157
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan W. Rivkin & Nicolaj Siggelkow, 2003. "Balancing Search and Stability: Interdependencies Among Elements of Organizational Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(3), pages 290-311, March.
    2. Choi, Hoon-Seok & Thompson, Leigh, 2005. "Old wine in a new bottle: Impact of membership change on group creativity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 121-132, November.
    3. Jan W. Rivkin & Nicolaj Siggelkow, 2007. "Patterned Interactions in Complex Systems: Implications for Exploration," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(7), pages 1068-1085, July.
    4. Amy C. Edmondson, 2003. "Speaking Up in the Operating Room: How Team Leaders Promote Learning in Interdisciplinary Action Teams," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1419-1452, September.
    5. Herbert A. Simon, 1991. "Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 125-134, February.
    6. Stephan Leitner & Friederike Wall, 2015. "Simulation-based research in management accounting and control: an illustrative overview," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 105-129, August.
    7. Nicolaj Siggelkow & Jan W. Rivkin, 2005. "Speed and Search: Designing Organizations for Turbulence and Complexity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(2), pages 101-122, April.
    8. Myers Bret R., 2012. "A Proposed Decision Rule for the Timing of Soccer Substitutions," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, March.
    9. Jan W. Rivkin, 2000. "Imitation of Complex Strategies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(6), pages 824-844, June.
    10. Stephan Leitner, 2021. "On the Role of Incentives in Evolutionary Approaches to Organizational Design," Papers 2105.04514, arXiv.org, revised May 2021.
    11. Daniel A. Levinthal, 1997. "Adaptation on Rugged Landscapes," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(7), pages 934-950, July.
    12. Marco LiCalzi & Oktay Surucu, 2012. "The Power of Diversity over Large Solution Spaces," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(7), pages 1408-1421, July.
    13. Lundin, Rolf A. & Söderholm, Anders, 1995. "A theory of the temporary organization," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 437-455, December.
    14. Eppler, Martin J. & Sukowski, Oliver, 2000. "Managing team knowledge: core processes, tools and enabling factors," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 334-341, June.
    15. 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.
    16. MacCormack, Alan & Baldwin, Carliss & Rusnak, John, 2012. "Exploring the duality between product and organizational architectures: A test of the “mirroring” hypothesis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 1309-1324.
    17. Thomas Spanuth & Sven Heidenreich & Andreas Wald, 2020. "Temporary organisations in the creation of dynamic capabilities: effects of temporariness on innovative capacity and strategic flexibility," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(10), pages 1186-1208, November.
    18. Mürüvvet Büyükboyaci & Andrea Robbett, 2019. "Team formation with complementary skills," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 713-733, November.
    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. Stephan Leitner, 2022. "Collaborative search and autonomous task allocation in organizations of learning agents," Papers 2206.02142, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.
    2. Dar'io Blanco-Fern'andez & Stephan Leitner & Alexandra Rausch, 2022. "The benefits of coordination in (over)adaptive virtual teams," Papers 2206.14508, arXiv.org.

    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. Dario Blanco-Fernandez & Stephan Leitner & Alexandra Rausch, 2022. "Interactions between the individual and the group level in organizations: The case of learning and autonomous group adaptation," Papers 2203.09162, arXiv.org.
    2. Darío Blanco-Fernández & Stephan Leitner & Alexandra Rausch, 2023. "Interactions between the individual and the group level in organizations: The case of learning and group turnover," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 31(4), pages 1087-1128, December.
    3. Sai Yayavaram & Wei-Ru Chen, 2015. "Changes in firm knowledge couplings and firm innovation performance: The moderating role of technological complexity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 377-396, March.
    4. Giannoccaro, Ilaria, 2015. "Adaptive supply chains in industrial districts: A complexity science approach focused on learning," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(PB), pages 576-589.
    5. Friederike Wall, 2016. "Agent-based modeling in managerial science: an illustrative survey and study," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 135-193, January.
    6. Mo Chen & Aseem Kaul & Brian Wu, 2019. "Adaptation across multiple landscapes: Relatedness, complexity, and the long run effects of coordination in diversified firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(11), pages 1791-1821, November.
    7. Sai Yayavaram & Sasanka Sekhar Chanda, 2023. "Decision making under high complexity: a computational model for the science of muddling through," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 300-335, June.
    8. Helmut M. Dietl & Markus Lang & Eric Lucas & Dirk Martignoni, 2012. "Learning Through Inaccurate Replication," Working Papers 312, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    9. Oliver Baumann & Nicolaj Siggelkow, 2013. "Dealing with Complexity: Integrated vs. Chunky Search Processes," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 116-132, February.
    10. Mohsen Jafari Songhori & Javad Nasiry, 2020. "Organizational Structure, Subsystem Interaction Pattern, and Misalignments in Complex NPD Projects," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(1), pages 214-231, January.
    11. Juha Uotila, 2018. "Punctuated equilibrium or ambidexterity: dynamics of incremental and radical organizational change over time," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(1), pages 131-148.
    12. Sangyoon Yi & Thorbjørn Knudsen & Markus C. Becker, 2016. "Inertia in Routines: A Hidden Source of Organizational Variation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 782-800, June.
    13. Jörg Claussen & Tobias Kretschmer & Nils Stieglitz, 2015. "Vertical Scope, Turbulence, and the Benefits of Commitment and Flexibility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(4), pages 915-929, April.
    14. Felipe A. Csaszar & Daniel A. Levinthal, 2016. "Mental representation and the discovery of new strategies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(10), pages 2031-2049, October.
    15. Ron Adner & Felipe A. Csaszar & Peter B. Zemsky, 2014. "Positioning on a Multiattribute Landscape," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(11), pages 2794-2815, November.
    16. Oliver Baumann, 2015. "Models of complex adaptive systems in strategy and organization research," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 14(2), pages 169-183, November.
    17. Dirk Martignoni & Thomas Keil & Markus Lang, 2020. "Focus in Searching Core–Periphery Structures," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 266-286, March.
    18. Kerstin Press, 2006. "Divide to conquer? The Silicon Valley - Boston 128 case revisited," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 0610, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Dec 2006.
    19. Daniel A. Levinthal & Maciej Workiewicz, 2018. "When Two Bosses Are Better Than One: Nearly Decomposable Systems and Organizational Adaptation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 207-224, April.
    20. Jan W. Rivkin & Nicolaj Siggelkow, 2007. "Patterned Interactions in Complex Systems: Implications for Exploration," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(7), pages 1068-1085, July.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:arx:papers:2203.09157. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.