Publications

Journal Article

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.

The authors develop and test a framework highlighting the distinct challenges these teams will face. In particular, the results show that each productivity factor contributed significantly more to team performance when the other factor was present. And the findings also illustrate a potential failure mode for knowledge utilization. If team members could not coordinate their collective efforts, utilizing knowledge undermined team performance.

The 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. The authors discuss the implications of the framework and results for theory and practice