Unpacking Team Familiarity: The Effects of Geographic Location and Hierarchical Role
- 1 May 2012
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Production and Operations Management
- Vol. 21 (3) , 619-635
Abstract
Examination of team productivity finds that team familiarity , i.e., individuals' prior shared work experience, can positively impact the efficiency and quality of team output. Despite the attention given to team familiarity and its contingencies, prior work has focused on whether team members have worked together, not on which team members have worked together, and under what conditions. In this paper, I parse overall team familiarity to consider effects of geographic location and the hierarchical roles of team members. Using data on all software‐development projects completed over 3 years at a large Indian firm in the global outsourced software services industry, I find that team familiarity gained when team members work together in the same location has a significantly more positive effect on team performance compared with team familiarity gained while members were collaborating in different locations. Additionally, I find that hierarchical team familiarity (a manager's experience with front‐line team members) and horizontal team familiarity (front‐line team members' experience gained with one another) have differential effects on project team performance. These findings provide insight into the relationship between team experience and team performance.Keywords
This publication has 53 references indexed in Scilit:
- Lean principles, learning, and knowledge work: Evidence from a software services providerJournal of Operations Management, 2010
- Human capital and learning as a source of sustainable competitive advantageStrategic Management Journal, 2004
- TIME MATTERS IN TEAM PERFORMANCE: EFFECTS OF MEMBER FAMILIARITY, ENTRAINMENT, AND TASK DISCONTINUITY ON SPEED AND QUALITYPersonnel Psychology, 2003
- Measuring transactive memory systems in the field: Scale development and validation.Journal of Applied Psychology, 2003
- Learning from Mistakes is Easier Said Than Done: Group and Organizational Influences on the Detection and Correction of Human Error2000
- Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work TeamsAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1999
- When the Going Gets Tough, Do the Tough Ask for Help? Help Seeking and Power Motivation in OrganizationsOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1997
- Effects of Task Experience and Group Experience on Group Performance, Member Ability, and Recognition of ExpertiseOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1997
- Group Composition and Decision Making: How Member Familiarity and Information Distribution Affect Process and PerformanceOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1996
- Social Pressures in Informal GroupsThe American Catholic Sociological Review, 1950