The Effects of Team Structural Adaptation on Team Problem Solving Performance

Abstract

Using a computer simulation, I explore how different team structural adaptations relate to team performance and investigate the intervening mechanisms and process by which different degrees of centralization of team decision making serve to balance the tradeoffs between flexibility and stability. I find that the permanently decentralized team has the short-run advantage compared to the permanently centralized team, while the permanently centralized team outperforms significantly the permanently decentralized team in the long run. Teams that couple decentralization that fosters flexibility with eventual centralization that promotes stability outperform those that rely exclusively on decentralization or centralization or those that rely on decentralization eventually. The reintegrated and elastic adaptation perform the best because they gain the benefits of efficiency and exploration realized by decentralization, while they also achieve the benefits of integration for internal fit caused by centralization. The elastic structure is more appropriate to respond to the high stability demands, while the reintegrated structure is more appropriate to respond to the high flexibility demands.