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In this paper, we consider how fluid teams and fluid tasks interact to affect team performance. We study the effect of diversity in experience on a team's ability to respond to changing tasks by separately examining interpersonal team diversity (i.e., the difference in experience across the entire team) and intrapersonal team diversity (i.e., whether individuals on the team are more or less specialized). We also, examine whether team familiarity - team members' prior experience working with one another - helps teams to cope with the expected challenges created by changing tasks and greater interpersonal team diversity. Using detailed project- and individual-level data from an Indian software services firm, we find that the interaction of task change and intrapersonal diversity is related to improved project performance while the interaction of task change and interpersonal diversity is related to worse project performance. These results suggest that though diverse experience across team members decreases flexibility to change, diverse experience within team members increases flexibility. Additionally, we find that team familiarity partially alleviates the negative effect of interpersonal diversity on two of our three dimensions of project performance. Our results highlight the need for more nuanced approaches to leveraging experience in managing teams.
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Fluid teams and fluid tasks: the impact of diversity in experience and team familiarity
2010, Harvard Business School
in English
- 3rd rev.
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Fluid teams and fluid tasks: the impact of team familiarity and variation in experience
2009, Harvard Business School
in English
- 2nd rev.
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Book Details
Edition Notes
"June 2009, revised August 2009, November 2009, April 2010"--Publisher's website.
Previously published as: Fluid teams and fluid tasks: the impact of team familiarity and variation in experience.
Includes bibliographical references.
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Work Description
In many manufacturing and service settings, fluid teams of individuals with varied sets of experience are responsible for projects that are critical to their organizations' success. Although building teams from individuals with varied prior experience is increasingly necessary, prior work fails to find a consistent effect of variation in experience on performance. We hypothesize that team familiarity - team members' prior experience working with one another - is one mechanism that helps teams leverage the benefits of variation in team experience by alleviating coordination problems that variation creates. Just as teams are growing more fluid, so too are the tasks they perform. Due to many factors, work is often changed in-process. We hypothesize that team familiarity and variation in experience may help to moderate the negative effect of task change on performance. We use detailed project- and individual-level data from an Indian software services firm to examine these effects. We find the interaction of team familiarity and variation in experience has a positive effect on the likelihood of a project being delivered on time and on budget while variation in experience moderates the negative effect of task change on performance. Our results shed light on how the management of experience accumulation affects operational performance.
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