Abstract
Individuals in contemporary work organizations are often involved in multiple teams at the same time. This study uses a social capital perspective to propose that employees’ multiple team memberships (MTM) offer the potential for individual performance benefits and detriments, depending on the characteristics of an employee’s information‐sharing network. To test our predictions, we gathered both archival and survey data at an organization for applied research in the Netherlands. We found that individual MTM was indirectly associated with an employee’s overall job performance by increasing the size of his or her information‐sharing network. As expected, however, this indirect relationship was contingent on the average strength of an employee’s network ties (i.e., the frequency of the respective interactions), such that MTM only improved overall performance when network ties were relatively weak. The indirect relationship between MTM and individual job performance was negative, by contrast, when an employee’s network ties were relatively strong. Together, these findings advance our understanding of the mechanisms and contingency factors that shape the performance consequences associated with individuals’ concurrent membership in multiple teams.Practitioner points An employee’s membership in multiple teams at the same time increases the size of his or her information‐sharing network within the organization. The performance consequences associated with this increased information‐sharing network hinge on the characteristics of an employee’s information‐sharing network. If the respective information‐sharing linkages are based on relatively infrequent interactions with colleagues, an employee’s multiple team membership indirectly benefits his or her overall job performance. If the respective information‐sharing linkages are based on relatively frequent and intense interactions with colleagues, however, an employee’s multiple team membership indirectly diminishes his or her overall job performance.
Highlights
We found that individual multiple team memberships (MTM) was indirectly associated with an employee’s overall job performance by increasing the size of his or her information-sharing network
We aim to show the relevance of a social network perspective in MTM research and to integrate seemingly contradictory arguments that previous research has put forth about individual MTM’s performance benefits and detriments
We define individual MTM as the number of teams to which an employee allocates working time during a specific period. When such MTM is higher, an employee is simultaneously involved in a greater number of teams, whereas an individual with lower MTM spends his or her working time in only one or a few concurrent teams. We focus on this dimension because previous studies (1) have shown such MTM to potentially shape employees’ overall job performance across teams and tasks (Van de Brake et al, 2018; Zika-Viktorsson et al, 2006) and (2) have suggested that an increase in MTM number may substantially increase an employee’s social network on the job (O’Leary et al, 2011; Van de Brake et al, 2018, 2019)
Summary
More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverneamendment. We found that individual MTM was indirectly associated with an employee’s overall job performance by increasing the size of his or her information-sharing network. The indirect relationship between MTM and individual job performance was negative, by contrast, when an employee’s network ties were relatively strong Together, these findings advance our understanding of the mechanisms and contingency factors that shape the performance consequences associated with individuals’ concurrent membership in multiple teams. An employee’s membership in multiple teams at the same time increases the size of his or her information-sharing network within the organization. If the respective information-sharing linkages are based on relatively infrequent interactions with colleagues, an employee’s multiple team membership indirectly benefits his or her overall job performance
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