Knowledge Utilization, Coordination, and Team Performance

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Reagans, Ray; Miron-Spektor, Ella; Argote, Linda
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Technion Israel Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2016.1078
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 1108-1124
• 关键词: teams; transactive memory systems; COORDINATION; knowledge utilization; specialization

摘要

Considerable research has established the superior performance of teams on which team members utilize specialized knowledge and also develop transactive processes that promote coordination. Less is known, however, about the consequences for team performance when team members only possess one of the two productivity factors. We develop and test a framework highlighting the distinct challenges these teams will face. In particular, our results show that each productivity factor contributed significantly more to team performance when the other factor was present. And our findings also illustrate a potential failure mode for knowledge utilization. If team members could not coordinate their collective efforts, utilizing knowledge undermined team performance. Our framework outlines a similar risk for too much coordination, if team members cannot utilize their specialized knowledge and are asked to perform a task with a rugged performance landscape. We discuss the implications of our framework and results for theory and practice.