Multiple Membership Research Articles

Coordination in Dynamic Teams: Investigating a Learning–Productivity Trade-Off

The rapid growth in the use of teams and multiple team membership has led more organizations to structure work around dynamic teams, characterized by short lifespans and fluid membership boundaries. This approach to organizing work makes it difficult for teams to work efficiently or to support the learning and growth of members. Given the importance of productivity and learning, we ask how these processes can be supported in dynamic teams. We do so in a randomized controlled field experiment conducted with 91 teams in a teaching hospital, a context in which physician trainees must learn while providing patient care in dynamic teams of care providers. We randomly assigned physician teams, or “core” teams, to launch their work with an intervention focused either on internal coordination among the core team members or on external coordination with a changing cast of external contributors such as nurses and specialists. We measured resulting levels of internal and external coordination over teams’ week-long lifespans and observed that external coordination was associated with improved team efficiency, whereas internal coordination was associated with improved individual learning. Post hoc exploratory analysis suggested that individual learning was highest when teams achieved high levels of both internal and external coordination, and it was positively correlated with improvement in the team’s patients’ average length of hospital stay. We discuss the implications of the demonstrated causal effects of team launches, along with our exploratory findings, for the management of dynamic teams and the opportunities to mitigate potential trade-offs between learning and productivity. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.16729 .

Does child abuse predict a population segment with large economic burden?

ObjectivesThe enormous societal and individual consequences of mental health disorders and detrimental health behaviours in the general population are of paramount concern. Many argue that ‘prevention is the best cure’, pushing for the implementation of early (preventive) interventions. Key questions regarding early interventions include which population segment to target for screenings and what information these screenings should focus on. In line with previous efforts, this study aimed to identify which population segment holds the majority (≥ 80 %) of different economically costly outcomes in society, and whether child abuse before the age of 16 years predicts being part of that population segment. Study designEpidemiological cohort study. MethodsThis study used the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-2, a Dutch epidemiological cohort study including 6646 adults aged 18–64 years at baseline, spanning four timepoints from 2007 to 2018. Cumulative distributions were computed to identify high-cost population segments of economically costly outcomes in adulthood (i.e., mental and physical health [behaviours], unemployment and work absenteeism). Child abuse was examined as a potential predictor of these segments and the risk of multiple high-cost population segment membership was investigated by conducting Poisson regressions. ResultsA 20 % population segment carried between 42 % and 100 % of economically costly outcomes. Being exposed to more child abuse predicted being in a high-cost population segment, albeit with small effect sizes. Being exposed to more child abuse also predicted belonging to multiple high-cost population segments across different economically costly outcomes. ConclusionsThe study findings have implications for policy makers. Emphasis should be placed on prevention aimed at identifying potential members of multiple high-cost population segments.

Evaluating analytic models for individually randomized group treatment trials with complex clustering in nested and crossed designs.

Many individually randomized group treatment (IRGT) trials randomly assign individuals to study arms but deliver treatments via shared agents, such as therapists, surgeons, or trainers. Post-randomization interactions induce correlations in outcome measures between participants sharing the same agent. Agents can be nested in or crossed with trial arm, and participants may interact with a single agent or with multiple agents. These complications have led to ambiguity in choice of models but there have been no systematic efforts to identify appropriate analytic models for these study designs. To address this gap, we undertook a simulation study to examine the performance of candidate analytic models in the presence of complex clustering arising from multiple membership, single membership, and single agent settings, in both nested and crossed designs and for a continuous outcome. With nested designs, substantial type I error rate inflation was observed when analytic models did not account for multiple membership and when analytic model weights characterizing the association with multiple agents did not match the data generating mechanism. Conversely, analytic models for crossed designs generally maintained nominal type I error rates unless there was notable imbalance in the number of participants that interact with each agent.

Structure Induced by a Multiple Membership Transformation on the Conditional Autoregressive Model

The objective of disease mapping is to model data aggregated at the areal level. In some contexts, however, (e.g. residential histories, general practitioner catchment areas) when data is arising from a variety of sources, not necessarily at the same spatial scale, it is possible to specify spatial random effects, or covariate effects, at the areal level, by using a multiple membership principle (MM) (Petrof et al., 2020; Gramatica et al., 2021). A weighted average of conditional autoregressive (CAR) spatial random effects embeds spatial information for a spatially-misaligned outcome and estimate relative risk for both frameworks (areas and memberships). In this paper we investigate the theoretical underpinnings of these application of the multiple membership principle to the CAR prior, in particular with regard to parameterisation, properness and identifiability. We carry out simulations involving different numbers of memberships as compared to number of areas and assess impact of this on estimating parameters of interest. Both analytical and simulation study results show under which conditions parameters of interest are identifiable, so that we can offer actionable recommendations to researchers. Finally, we present the results of an application of the multiple membership model to diabetes prevalence data in South London, together with strategic implications for public health considerations.

Centering the margins: Reimagining resilience and resistance for transgender and nonbinary people of color

AbstractBy centering the margins through intersectional and cross‐cultural perspectives, this article offers a reimagining of resilience by exploring individual versus collective (i.e., group‐level) approaches and strategies adopted by transgender and nonbinary people of color (TPOC) to resist oppression. We address the dynamics of multiple group membership and recognize the profound effects of culture on how TPOC communities navigate resilience and resistance. Utilizing an international perspective, we examine risk and resilience by considering proximal and distal minority stressors such as discrimination and internalized stigma. We also address the utility of current models used to address TPOC resilience (i.e., minority stress and resilience theory, transgender resilience intervention model). Finally, we address tensions associated with the characterization of resilience and resistance for TPOC within the social sciences and across cultures. This article thus serves as a critical foundation for reimagining research with TPOC by presenting potential avenues for further research, theory, and community action globally.

The effect of multiple team membership on creativity: the role of self-reflection and need for cognition

The effect of multiple team membership on creativity: the role of self-reflection and need for cognition

Productivity in motion: a structuration theory lens and inductive analysis of MTM in engineering consulting firms

PurposeThis paper explores the impact of multiple team membership (MTM) on the productivity of team members in engineering consulting firms. MTM refers to employees participating concurrently in multiple teams, a concept closely linked to projectification. Despite the fact that this concept can enhance collaboration, it also introduces coordination challenges that may negatively affect productivity.Design/methodology/approachThrough an inductive approach involving 12 semi-structured interviews with engineering consulting professionals specializing in water and energy infrastructure projects, this paper examines the factors affecting team member productivity in an MTM setting. Following the interviews, a Delphi technique was employed, engaging 16 experts to rank the factors and sub-factors identified from the interview data. This two-stage approach ensured a comprehensive and validated assessment of productivity factors.FindingsThis study develops 8 factors process model grounded in structuration theory to explain the socio-technical mechanisms by which multiple team membership shapes productivity outcomes in engineering consulting firms specialized in water and energy infrastructure projects. Key findings surface micro-foundations, tensions in technology provisions, planning processes, and career development that inform theoretical advances and practical improvements.Originality/valueThis research contributes empirically insights into managing MTM in expert service contexts. Applying Giddens' structuration theory, this study reveals how agency and structures shape productivity across organizational, team, and individual levels. In practice, this study provides recommendations for improving productivity within projectified environments, mainly for team members working in an MTM environment in engineering consulting firms specializing in water and energy infrastructure projects.

The Relational Dimensions of Multiple Team Membership: A Social Network Exploration

The Relational Dimensions of Multiple Team Membership: A Social Network Exploration

How to Manage the Duality of Multiple Team Membership: The Role of External and Internal Diversity

How to Manage the Duality of Multiple Team Membership: The Role of External and Internal Diversity

A Novel Hierarchical High-Dimensional Unsupervised Active Learning Method

This paper processes a novel hierarchical high-dimensional clustering algorithm based on the Active Learning Method (ALM), which is a fuzzy-learning algorithm. The hierarchical part of the algorithm is composed of two phases: divisible and agglomerative. The divisible phase, a zooming-in-process, searches for sub-clusters in already-found clusters hierarchically. At each level of the hierarchy, the clusters are found by an ensemble clustering method based on the density of data. This part of the algorithm blurs each data point as multiple one-dimensional fuzzy membership functions called ink-drop patterns; then, it accumulates the ink-drop patterns of all data points on every dimension separately. Next, it performs one-dimensional density partitioning to produce an ensemble of clustering solutions; after that, combining the results is done based on a novel consensus method with the aid of prime numbers. An agglomerative phase is a bottom-up approach that merges clusters based on a novel distance metric, named K2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${K}^{2}$$\\end{document}-nearest neighbor. The algorithm is named as the Hierarchical High-Dimensional Unsupervised Active Learning Method (HiDUALM) and is explained in more detail throughout this paper. Although the classical clustering methods are not suitable for high-dimensional data clustering, the proposed method solves the problems related to speed and memory using ensemble learning, while due to its hierarchy and the use of different distance criteria, different levels of the cluster provide the clause. Experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed-clustering algorithm.

Networking ATTAC: the local branch of ATTAC in Argentina

ABSTRACT ATTAC is a network of international twin organizations that opposes the neo-liberal globalization aiming at pledging essential rights for everybody. On this basis, the local branch of ATTAC in Argentina was investigated in order to understand “if” and “how” its interconnections with other political and social movement organizations are helpful in building an effective national political strategy and which could contribute to the pan-American one. The local branch of ATTAC-Quebec was also previously investigated and a South-to-North continuity-line might be traced that connects the two organizations. Participant observation and qualitative network interviews were employed in Argentina. The multiple political membership approach inspired the research while the social network analysis was developed through eight interviews with ATTAC militants. Among others, the militants were asked which other groups and organizations they were simultaneously associated with, and the network available was also qualitatively discussed further. In the fieldwork it was noticed that ATTAC-Argentina does not count so many activists. However, the Argentinean and Canadian militants also suggest that “number doesn’t matter”. In fact, someone noticed that the strength and the political effectiveness of the two organizations is represented by the network available to them. In other words, the data describe ATTAC-Argentina as a group that can count on a solid network of left-wing organizations through the militants’ political grid. This grid combined with the solid network of organizations on the pan-American scale represents an effective political option for the Latin-American branch of ATTAC for the present and the time to come.

Similarities Across Difference: Consequences of Intersectional Sexual Stereotypes for Black and Latinx Women and Men in the United States

Complexity in the structure of power relations is a fruitful site of analysis that an intersectional framework brings to bear in articulating radical Black feminisms. The psychological literature utilizing an intersectional approach to study stereotyping has illuminated the importance of moving beyond a single-identity or single-axis lens. For instance, there is burgeoning literature showing that there are unique social categorizations and perceptions that vary by combinations of multiple group memberships (e.g., race and gender together). Further, an intersectional approach also draws attention to similarities and connections across different groups with unique relationships to systems of power and oppression. Focusing on these areas of similarities across difference provides insight into contexts that reinforce social inequality and are powerful avenues for building collective power through coalitions to address inequity. Therefore, the current investigation sought to address how Black and Latinx people in New York City discuss these sites of similarities and differences in power and privilege as they relate to their understanding of sexual stereotypes and their consequences in their everyday lives. We conducted 11 focus groups with 75 participants. Using thematic analysis, we identified four major themes highlighting shared and distinct stereotype-based experiences, including microaggressions and discrimination, double standards, interpersonal relationships, and emotional and behavioral responses. Beyond illuminating harmful consequences of sexual stereotypes, findings underscore the radical potential for achieving collective liberation by amplifying oppressed groups’ commonalities and differences simultaneously.

Inflection class interactions and valency changes in Matlatzinca

Abstract In this paper, we explore how changes in the inflection class membership of verbs in Matlatzinca (Oto-Pamean, Oto-Manguean, Mexico) lead to changes in both their valency and meaning. In Matlatzinca, verbs often exhibit multiple class membership so that a given verb may be inflected as transitive in one class but as intransitive in another. For instance, the verb chun+ta, when inflected in different classes, can encompass diverse meanings: the action of ‘waking someone up’; the result state of ‘being awake’; and the spontaneous event of ‘waking up’. This linguistic phenomenon is intriguing from both a typological and a theoretical perspective as it challenges our understanding of lexical representation by prompting the question of whether these meanings represent distinct lexical entries or various construals of the same verb (Spencer 2013).

A novel temporal adaptive fuzzy neural network for facial feature based fatigue assessment

When engaging in activities such as using video display terminals, driving, or sports, effective fatigue monitoring is crucial. Nevertheless, obtaining biological information through contact devices may interfere with normal activities. Deterministic expressions in mainstream machine learning have limitations in reflecting the continuous, dynamic, and fuzzy process of fatigue status. Additionally, fatigue is a cumulative process where the previous state impacts the assessment of the current one. To address these needs and challenges, this paper proposes a novel model based on facial videos called the temporal adaptive fuzzy neural network (TAFNN) for fatigue assessment. TAFNN utilizes an adaptive fuzzy neural network as its foundation and employs causal and dilated convolutions for the time information processing method to achieve time series extraction and fatigue assessment. It leverages facial physiological and motion features to minimize interference during assessment. Furthermore, TAFNN introduces a new calculation method for rule antecedents to enhance stability. Experimental results demonstrate that TAFNN effectively captures the cumulation and fuzziness of state changes, outperforming other widely adopted methods in both assessment ability and runtime performance. The improved rule antecedent calculation method successfully mitigates the issue of multiple memberships rapidly approaching zero after combination. Through 1000 repeated experiments, the enhanced method reduces TAFNN’s instability by 81.58%.

Group membership, social identification and mental health: A test of social cure or curse narrative in resource-poor communities in Ghana

Mainstream psychology research promotes social group membership as a remedy for poor mental health. However, empirical evidence from African communities is limited. Using a survey of 384 respondents (female = 55.7%; mean age = 34.38 years, SD = 14.37 years), we examined this in two resource-poor Ghanaian urban communities. Depressive symptoms ranged from 11.5% to 28.1%, with severe symptom rates higher in male participants. Anxiety symptoms varied from 6.5% to 14.6%. Hierarchical regression showed that after accounting for demographic variables, multiple group membership, group stigma, and identity centrality were associated with heightened depressive and anxiety symptoms. Ingroup homogeneity, satisfaction with the group, and perceived solidarity were associated with lower levels of symptoms. The findings reveal a dual-edge impact of social identification on mental health, underscoring the need for the development of context-specific interventions to effectively harness social group membership as psychosocial resources to improve mental health within African contexts.

Multiple group membership and executive function in a socioeconomically diverse sample

Belonging to multiple groups is an important feature of our social lives. However, it is largely unknown if it is related to individual differences in cognitive performance. Given that changing self-identities linked to each group requires cognitive operations on knowledge bases associated with each group, the extent to which people belong to multiple groups may be related to individual differences in cognitive performance. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to test if multiple group membership is related to executive function task performance. A socioeconomically diverse sample of 395 individuals in Indonesia participated in this study. Our results show that multiple group membership was positively related to the 3-back working memory performance. However, we also found that this relationship was significant only among participants with high (not median or low) SES. We also observed that Contact diversity was negatively related to working memory performance among participants with low SES. Our results show that the complexity of our social lives is related to individual differences in executive function performance, although this seems to be constrained by SES.

Heterogeneous effects of hospital competition on inpatient quality: an analysis of five common diseases in China

BackgroundMany countries has introduced pro-competition policies in the delivery of healthcare to improve medical quality, including China. With the increasing intensity of competition in China's healthcare market, there are rising concerns among policymakers about the impact of hospital competition on quality. This study investigated heterogeneous effects of hospital competition on inpatient quality.MethodsWe analyzed the inpatient discharge dataset and selected chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), ischemic stroke, pneumonia, hemorrhagic stroke, and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) as representative diseases. A total of 561,429 patients in Sichuan Province in 2017 and 2019 were included. The outcomes of interest were in-hospital mortality and 30-day unplanned readmissions. The Herfindahl–Hirschman Index was calculated using predicted patient flows to measure hospital competition. To address the spatial correlations of hospitals and the structure of the dataset, the multiple membership multiple classification model was employed for analysis.ResultsAmid intensifying competition in the hospital market, our study discerned no marked statistical variance in the risk of inpatient quality across most diseases examined. Amplified competition exhibited a positive correlation with heightened in-hospital mortality for both COPD and pneumonia patients. Elevated competition escalated the risk of 30-day unplanned readmissions for COPD patients, while inversely affecting the risk for AMI patients.ConclusionsThere is the heterogeneous impact of hospital competition on quality across various diseases in China. Policymakers who intend to leverage hospital competition as a tool to enhance healthcare quality must be cognizant of the possible influences of it.

Benefit or cost? The “double-edged sword” effect of multiple team membership on creativity

In the digital era, many organizations adopt multiple team membership (MTM) as a job model. However, this remains a relatively new management topic. Therefore, further theoretical studies are urgently needed. First, after theoretical analysis, our study proposes that there may be a “double-edged” mediation effect and a mediated moderation model between MTM and creativity. Second, our study confirms the above hypotheses by adopting data-matched empirical research in the two waves. These results of the data analysis show that MTM brings both benefits and costs to creativity, and thriving at work and emotional exhaustion are the two “key drivers” for MTM's employees to stimulate creativity. On the one hand, MTM enhances creativity by positively affecting thriving at work. By contrast, MTM reduces creativity by increasing emotional exhaustion. In addition, this study further tests the boundary mechanism of the MTM. Specifically, polychronicity positively moderates the relationship between MTM and thriving at work, and it further moderates the benefit-mediating path of thriving at work. Meanwhile, polychronicity significantly moderates the relationship between MTM and emotional exhaustion and further moderates the cost-mediating path of emotional exhaustion. This empirical study focuses on the complex mechanism of how and when MTM effectively affects creativity, responds to scholars’ calls for further exploration of the effects of MTM, and provides a theoretical reference for organizations to enhance creativity.

Altruism in Facility Location Problems

We study the facility location problems (FLPs) with altruistic agents who act to benefit others in their affiliated groups. Our aim is to design mechanisms that elicit true locations from the agents in different overlapping groups and place a facility to serve agents to approximately optimize a given objective based on agents' costs to the facility. Existing studies of FLPs consider myopic agents who aim to minimize their own costs to the facility. We mainly consider altruistic agents with well-motivated group costs that are defined over costs incurred by all agents in their groups. Accordingly, we define Pareto strategyproofness to account for altruistic agents and their multiple group memberships with incomparable group costs. We consider mechanisms satisfying this strategyproofness under various combinations of the planner's objectives and agents' group costs. For each of these settings, we provide upper and lower bounds of approximation ratios of the mechanisms satisfying Pareto strategyproofness.

The Social Cure Properties of Groups Across Cultures: Groups Provide More Support but Have Stronger Norms and Are Less Curative in Relationally Immobile Societies

We investigate whether the social cure properties of groups vary across cultures, testing hypotheses that the associations between multiple group memberships (MGM) and depressive symptoms will (a) be mediated by social support and uncomfortable normative pressures, and (b) vary systematically with sample-level relational mobility. Analyses of data from a survey ( N = 5,174) conducted within k = 29 samples show that MGM is negatively associated with depressive symptoms, an association fully mediated by social support and uncomfortable normative pressures. In line with our theorizing, in samples with higher levels of relational mobility constraints, the association between MGM and depressive symptoms is weaker, the associations between MGM and social support and between MGM and normative pressures are stronger, and the association between social support and depressive symptoms weaker. The indirect link between MGM and depressive symptoms via social support is significant at both low and high levels of relational mobility constraints.