Flubber Teams: The Emergence of Dynamic Platform-Enabled Teams in Business Organizations

Abstract

Digitalization is changing how organizations do business and organize their activities. New digital technologies have transformed sales, marketing, human resource management and other organizational processes. In this study, we examine the effect of digital transformation and the introduction of platform-enabled collaboration on the functioning of teams in organizations. We use the grounded theory method to analyze data collected during a year-long collaboration with a leading gas and oil company, which has introduced a proprietary freelance platform. We observe a novel approach to project and teamwork management resulting in a formation of new form of collaboration, which we call flubber teaming. Such teams have the ability to dynamically change their shape, form, hierarchy, and other properties, making these structures an attractive approach to teaming for large organizations. However, their emergence introduces additional pressures on organizational structures and culture.