Journal of Applied Psychology · 2007 · 308 citations · 36 references
ManagementOrganization StudiesOrganizational BehaviorGroup DynamicsKnowledge SharingTeamworkInterdependence In TeamsTeam CoordinationTeam EffectivenessTeam PerformanceCooperative Goal StructureEcological ValidityEcological Validity ModelTeam Goal InterdependenceTeam Knowledge SharingTeam Performance Improvement
Teamwork and coordination of expertise among members from diverse backgrounds are increasingly recognized as essential for team effectiveness, and researchers have examined how teams rely on transactive memory systems to share distributed knowledge. The study aimed to establish the ecological validity and generality of TMS research by sampling 104 work teams across diverse Chinese organizational settings and examining how team characteristics, TMS, and performance interrelate. The authors sampled 104 work teams from various organizational settings in China and analyzed the relationships among team characteristics, TMS, and team performance. Results showed that task interdependence, cooperative goal interdependence, and innovation support positively relate to TMS, which in turn is linked to team performance, with TMS mediating the relationship between team characteristics and performance, offering implications for leaders and members.
Teamwork and coordination of expertise among team members with different backgrounds are increasingly recognized as important for team effectiveness. Recently, researchers have examined how team members rely on transactive memory system (TMS; D. M. Wegner, 1987) to share their distributed knowledge and expertise. To establish the ecological validity and generality of TMS research findings, this study sampled 104 work teams from a variety of organizational settings in China and examined the relationships between team characteristics, TMS, and team performance. The results suggest that task interdependence, cooperative goal interdependence, and support for innovation are positively related to work teams' TMS and that TMS is related to team performance; moreover, structural equation analysis indicates that TMS mediates the team characteristics-performance links. Findings have implications both for team leaders to manage their work teams effectively and for team members to improve their team performance.
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