Task Characteristics and Incentives in Collaborative Problem Solving: Evidence from Three Field Experiments

Abstract

Effective teamwork is crucial in modern-day business, especially in knowledge work. However, building and maintaining effective teams is a challenging task for firms. Whereas previous literature emphasizes the significance of team composition, dynamics, and senior management’s role, the role of task characteristics and incentive alignment in effective collaboration is largely ignored. Our study addresses this gap by identifying the importance of task characteristics and incentive alignment in successful collaboration. Through three large-scale field experiments, we find that tasks with high difficulty and urgency are suitable for collaboration, whereas collaboration can be detrimental to tasks that don’t require urgent completion. We also find that aligning individual incentives with organizational goals is critical to successful collaboration. Our research offers practical guidance to organizations implementing information systems for collaborative problem solving. We suggest using task characteristics to determine the workflow that will benefit from a collaborative approach. Furthermore, we emphasize the importance of management’s active involvement in aligning incentives between team members and the project or company’s goals.