Browsing by Subject "Task interdependence"

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    The Effects of Expertise Diversity and Task Interdependence on Project Team Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Individual Autonomy
    (2020-07) Yoo, Sangok
    Designing successful project teams has been receiving increasing attention in academia and practice. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of expertise diversity and task interdependence on project team effectiveness, considering individual autonomy as a moderator. This study conceptualizes four dimensions of project team effectiveness: project efficiency, project creativity, team satisfaction, and growth experience. In this study, expertise-domain diversity and expertise-level diversity are proposed as the two dimensions of expertise diversity. Theoretically, the social categorization and information/decision-making perspectives provide logical grounds to develop hypotheses on the various relationships between expertise diversity and project team effectiveness. The integrated theory of job design provides a basis for the independence between task interdependence and individual autonomy. The final sample, 274 individuals from 50 project teams, was collected from a large healthcare organization in the U.S. To quantify expertise diversity of each project team, this study used HR information of all members of the 50 project teams. Disciplines and Organizational positions were used to operationalize expertise-domain diversity and expertise-level diversity. On the baseis of a multilevel design, hHierarchical linear modeling was employed to test the hypotheses including quadratic relationships and multilevel moderation effects. Expertise-domain diversity was negatively related to project efficiency, project creativity, and team satisfaction. Expertise-level diversity was positively related to project efficiency and team satisfaction and not related to project creativity. Both expertise-domain diversity and expertise-level diversity were not significantly associated with growth experience. Task interdependence was positively related to team satisfaction and growth experience. In terms of moderation, individual autonomy negatively moderated the relationships between task interdependence and project team effectiveness, while it had no moderation effect on the relationships between expertise diversity and project team effectiveness. The finding of this study contributes to team diversity literature by empirically demonstrating the different effects of expertise diversity on project teams depending on its conceptualizations. Further, the significant interaction between task interdependence and individual autonomy implies that task interdependence benefits project teams when individual autonomy is low. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.
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    Utilizing expertise in work teams: the role of transactive memory systems.
    (2010-01) Zhu, Jing
    Transactive memory system (TMS) theory has attracted a lot of attention in understanding expertise recognition and utilization in work teams in recent years. However, the literature has been mainly focusing on the direct effects of TMS on team performance, leaving the effects on other team outcomes as well as the contingent factors of these effects largely unknown (Lewis, 2003). In addition, according to a recent review by Kozlowski and Ilgen (2006), the literature, featuring an emerging field, needs development on clarifying the definition of the construct and identifying antecedents that contribute to the establishment of TMS. To address these limitations and to advance our understandings of TMS, in this dissertation, I first clarified and synthesized the divergent dimensions of TMS by proposing a two-higher-order-component framework, i.e. TMS structure and TMS manifestation. Based on a revised model, I argued that TMS structure is captured by TMS specialization, sharedness, and accuracy, and TMS manifestation captured by TMS credibility and coordination. Using this framework, I tried to answer three questions: (1) What relationships does TMS structure (specialization, sharedness, accuracy) have with team outcomes (performance, innovation, commitment) and are these relationships mediated by TMS manifestation (credibility and coordination)? (2) Do the relationships between TMS manifestation and team outcomes differ among teams with different task characteristics (i.e. task interdependence, task routineness, and alignment of task assignment)? And (3) Do functional diversity, status characteristics (i.e. average levels of task-related and non-task-related status characteristic cues), and interpersonal connections (closeness and communication frequency) in teams predict TMS structure and TMS manifestation? Using a sample of 92 charter school boards and 90 school directors, I conducted hierarchical ordinary least square (OLS) regressions. Results showed that, as predicted, TMS credibility and coordination mediated the positive relationships between TMS specialization and board performance and innovation rated by both the charter school directors and the board chairs as well as board commitment. In addition, TMS credibility mediated the positive relationships between TMS sharedness and school director-rated board performance and innovation as well as board commitment. Also as predicted, task interdependence moderated the relationships between TMS credibility and director- and chair-rated performance, director-rated innovation, and board commitment such that the positive relationships were stronger when task interdependence was high than when it was low. Task interdependence moderated the relationships between TMS coordination and director-rated performance and innovation and board commitment in the same fashion. Task routineness moderated the relationships between TMS credibility and director-rated performance and innovation such that the relationships were positive when the tasks were highly routine and negative when the tasks were non-routine. Task routinesness also moderated the relationships between TMS credibility and board commitment in the same fashion as task interdependence does. The average levels of task-related status cues positively predicted TMS specialization, the average levels of non-task-related status cues positively predicted TMS sharedness, and both status characteristics predicted TMS accuracy. Additionally, the levels of interpersonal v closeness among board members were positively related to TMS accuracy as well as TMS credibility and coordination. Contributions, practical implications, limitations and future research are discussed.