Task Interdependence Research Articles

Picture Perfect: A Task Interdependence and Communication Experiential Activity for Teams

Effective communication in interdependent group tasks plays a pivotal role in organizational effectiveness, especially in today’s dynamic and global workplace. As the modern workplace evolves toward more remote work environments and dynamic work teams, the ability to adapt communication strategies across various job designs and work settings becomes increasingly crucial. In this article, we present an experiential learning activity designed for management education that delves into the impact of task design on communication. Drawing from theories of team interdependence, this immersive experience enables students to identify the essential facets of communication and their relationship with various types of task interdependence. It equips them with valuable skills and communication strategies that are vital for various types of teamwork across different types of settings. Suitable for a wide range of educational settings, this experiential activity serves as a valuable resource for management educators.

Impact of emotional and cultural intelligence on project performance through psychological contract and task interdependence

Impact of emotional and cultural intelligence on project performance through psychological contract and task interdependence

Shared leadership strategies for languages education. A case of project-based learning at CLC in Poznan University of Technology

Abstract This article explains how shared leadership can be recognised and established in project-based learning as a situated English practice. It specifically explores the task characteristics of Cox et al.’s (2003) leadership model, which illustrates the functional relations between the procedural features of project work and its outcomes. The result of the analysis is that project work underlies the collective and highly integrative potential of the group of students, transforming them into a community of practice. The findings indicate that factors contributing to facilitating shared leadership are the interdependence of tasks between individuals driven by intrinsic motivation to act and the low complexity of tasks. The analysis also suggests that, although low complexity tasks may weaken shared leadership, they maximise relevance, thereby minimising cognitive effort. Consequently, this response strategy can help boost collaboration.

You have got a nerve: examining the nexus between coworkers' cyberloafing and workplace incivility

PurposeWhile cyberloafing has emerged as a prevalent issue in numerous workplaces, research on its consequences is still underdeveloped, highlighting a need for further exploration and analysis. Drawing upon the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion, this study investigates the influence of coworkers' cyberloafing on employees' workplace incivility, mediated by negative emotions and moderated by task interdependence.Design/methodology/approachIn Study 1, the hypothesized research model was tested utilizing three-wave time-lagged survey data collected from 333 employees and their coworkers. In Study 2, an additional sample of 274 employees was surveyed. Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis and the bootstrap method.FindingsThe results indicated that coworkers' cyberloafing positively influenced employees' workplace incivility, with this relationship mediated by negative emotions. Additionally, task interdependence was found to positively moderate both the direct relationship between coworkers' cyberloafing and negative emotions and the indirect path from coworkers' cyberloafing to employees' workplace incivility through negative emotions.Practical implicationsThis study helps managers gain a deeper understanding of cyberloafing's effects, enabling them to manage and curb it more effectively.Originality/valuePrior research has predominantly explored the effects of cyberloafing on its implementers. However, this study innovatively shifts focus to the observer perspective, empirically demonstrating whether and how coworkers' cyberloafing affects employees' workplace incivility, enriching and expanding the existing literature.

Incentivizing interdependent tasks: Evidence from a real-effort experiment

Workers are often required to jointly work on interdependent tasks that are cognitively complex. Yet, relatively little empirical evidence exists on how to effectively incentivize the workforce in such settings. Using a novel real-effort experiment, we assess the effects of team-based incentives (TBI) and individual-based incentives (IBI) on productivity. We provide evidence that TBI yield higher productivity than IBI, both when holding the incentives for the worker constant, and when holding the marginal cost of output for the firm constant. Various measures point towards workers engaging in lower quality work under IBI. We also provide new evidence that performance does not necessarily increase with the size of the monetary rewards. Overall, these results underscore the benefits of incentivizing the workforce in teams in settings in which workers’ payoff are interdependent and tasks are complex.

No Laughing Matter: How Autonomous Agents Can Improve Well-Being and Teamwork

Autonomous agents are a critical factor for maintaining the well-being and health of astronaut teams in long duration spaceflight. As autonomous agents become more independent and interdependent the need to understand how they can interact effectively with humans not only becomes more necessary but will become the paradigm for future team research. In our paper, we describe a conceptual model that explains how autonomous agents and human team members can learn to implicitly coordinate through humorous social interaction and effective task interdependence. We argue that to build a shared mental model between autonomous agents and human team members, HATs need to develop trust with one another, albeit through different mechanisms, to work together effectively.

Risk Analysis on Autonomous Vessels based on Systems Theory – Application of NET-HARMS method

Abstract The shift towards Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships is a significant development in the maritime logistics industry, with the potential to enhance efficiency, safety, and environmental sustainability. However, the integration of autonomous systems also presents new challenges and risks, particularly in the absence of empirical data for traditional risk assessment methodologies. This research tackles this problem by utilizing the Net-worked Hazard Analysis and Risk Management System (Net-HARMS) method, a systems thinking method that hasn’t been previously employed in examining MASS. The method analyses the risks associated with the EC-funded, H2020, MOSES Project, which included a concept for automating the manoeuvring and docking processes with autonomous tugboats. The Net-HARMS method offers a comprehensive and holistic approach to risk assessment, overcoming the limitations of conventional probabilistic models. By constructing a Hierarchical Task Analysis and a task network, the research maps the system’s operational framework and explores task interdependencies. The use of a risk mode taxonomy allows for the identification of task-specific and emergent risks, which are then assessed by utilising the risk matrix of the Risk-Based Assessment Tool developed by DNV, to assess the final risk as a function of the effectiveness of each risk mitigation layer and the severity of the identified task consequences. The findings provide valuable insights into critical tasks requiring enhanced risk control measures and contribute to the development of safety constraints necessary for the successful implementation of autonomous shipping technologies. By applying Net-HARMS method to the realm of autonomous ships, this research not only fills a significant gap in maritime risk analysis but also sets a precedent for future studies in this rapidly evolving field.

Workplace inclusion in higher education philanthropy

Positive workplace inclusion is important for any business today, but especially so for higher education philanthropy. Higher education philanthropy suffers from high turnover and lack of diversity, making successful workplace inclusion urgent. Higher education philanthropy exacerbates low diversity and high turnover through education bias, compensation and opportunity imbalance, work culture expectations that favour in-group members, low task interdependency, isolation from co-workers, low support from leadership, and burnout. To address the primary challenge of turnover, this paper proposes unit-level measures that higher education philanthropy offices might use to increase inclusion, promote diversity and improve work group performance and morale.

Input/output optimization scheduler for cloud-based map reduce framework

Hadoop MapReduce (HMR) provides the most common MapReduce (MR) framework, and it is available as open source. MR is a famous computational framework for evaluating unstructured, and semi-structured big data and executing applications in the past ten years. Memory and input/output (I/O) overhead are just two of the many problems affecting the current HMR scheduler system. This study aims to improve systems resource use including the processing of data in real-time by creating a memory I/O optimized scheduler (MIOOS) for HMR. The disk I/O seek can be reduced by using MIOOS, which analyzes the entire memory management. Additionally, the MIOOS makespan approach is used to reduce the occurrence of problems in intermediary tasks. Both the MIOOS approach and the current approach are assessed by using complex scientific workflow applications with extreme task inter-dependencies. Further, the comparison study demonstrates that the MIOOS framework outdoes the current approach regarding makespan and overall memory usage.

Modelling Government-to-Government (G2G) usage among government employees in Kuwait: The contingent role of task interdependence

The purpose of this paper is to investigate employee performance using G2G system in Kuwait. The study is based on D&M model, and it proposed the moderating effect of task interdependence on employee performance. Data of 290 employees were collected from Kuwait ministries, and smart PLS was used to analyse the data. Results indicate that information quality, service quality, and employee training have positive influence on G2G usage. Information quality, G2G usage, and service quality have positive influence on employee satisfaction. G2G usage, employee satisfaction, and employee training have positive influence on employee performance. However, system quality and employee training have no relationship with employee satisfaction. System quality also has no relationship with G2G usage. The study also showed no moderating effect of task interdependence on the relationship between G2G usage and employee performance. To overcome research limitations, several recommendations have been given for future research on this area.

Techno-economic analysis of mixed battery and fuel cell electric bus fleets: A case study

Electric city buses are promising to reduce traffic-related emissions in city centres as their drive train emits zero local emissions in an urban context. However, battery electric buses (BEBs) have limited driving range and long charging times. Although this can be managed, as city buses operate on predetermined routes, fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs) can meet more operational requirements in terms of range and charging. Thus, many bus network operators want to design a mixed full electric bus network with BEBs and FCEBs, which involves several complex and interdependent planning tasks. We extend an existing planning model to accommodate the planning of BEBs and FCEBs with their respective charging and fuelling infrastructure, and apply it to a real-world case study. Our results indicate that a heterogeneous BEB fleet with a mix of depot and opportunity charging results in lower total costs than a depot charging concept or a homogeneous FCEB fleet. We additionally find that a heterogeneous fleet including FCEBs and BEBs with a mix of charging concepts can be beneficial under specific circumstances. More specifically, the results indicate, that FCEB are a viable technology to supplement full electric bus fleets as soon as the costs for FCEB fall below 625,000€or the costs for hydrogen fall below 4.33 €/kg H2. Interestingly, rising energy prices would not increase the utilization of FCEBs, but rather influence the choice of BEB-types.

Fostering intergenerational harmony: Can good quality contact between older and younger employees reduce workplace conflict?

AbstractThis study examines how workplace conflict between multigenerational co‐workers arises and can be reduced. Utilizing social categorization and intergroup contact theories, we hypothesized that good quality contact between older and younger employees decreases task and relationship conflict by reducing perceived age discrimination (PAD), above and beyond trust as a typical social exchange mechanism prevalent in relationships between co‐workers. Furthermore, we predicted that task interdependence would exacerbate the relationships between PAD with task and relationship conflict. We applied structural equation modelling using a sample of 567 older and younger British employees to test our hypotheses while controlling for trust as an alternative mechanism. In line with our predictions, we found that good quality contact between older and younger employees reduced employees' PAD, which in turn reduced task conflict and relationship conflict (above and beyond trust as a control mechanism). The indirect effects of intergroup contact on workplace conflict via PAD were further enhanced when cross‐age co‐workers were highly interdependent in conducting their work tasks. Our findings suggest that organizations should create practices to improve cross‐age contact in the workplace.

When and why host country nationals give advice to expatriates: A relational work context perspective

This study advances our understanding of how a relational work context can promote host country nationals’ (HCNs’) advice-giving behavior. Drawing from social interdependence theory and relational signalling theory, we develop a multilevel model to demonstrate how task interdependence and expatriate advice seeking can jointly influence HCNs’ advice giving. Using data from 795 HCNs nested within 159 expatriates, we find that at the HCN level (Level 1), task interdependence facilitates HCNs’ prosocial motivation and advice-giving behavior. Also, at the expatriate level (Level 2), task interdependence facilitates expatriates’ advice-seeking behavior, which further has a cross-level interaction effect with HCNs’ task interdependence in predicting HCNs’ prosocial motivation and ultimate advice-seeking behavior. We discuss the implications for theory and practice.

The association between task interdependence and participation in decision-making: a moderated mediation model in mental healthcare

ABSTRACT Participation in decision-making is crucial to healthcare workers collaborating across professions. Important correlates of participation in decision-making include task interdependence, informational role self-efficacy, and beliefs in the benefits of interprofessional collaboration. We hypothesised that although task interdependence is directly related to participation in decision-making, the relationship is mediated by informational role self-efficacy. Beliefs in the benefits in interprofessional collaboration act as a mediator. A sample of 315 mental healthcare workers answered validated questionnaires. Conditional processing was used to test the moderated mediation. Generally, the results confirmed our hypotheses. There was a direct relationship between task interdependence and participation in decision-making and it was mediated by informational role self-efficacy, and both relationships depend on whether healthcare workers believe in the benefits of interprofessional collaboration. However, although the moderation effect of beliefs in the benefits of interprofessional collaboration between task interdependence and informational role self-efficacy was positive, the moderation effect was negative for the relationship between task interdependence and participation in decision-making. Although there is an inherent logic in the positive relationships that were found, the negative moderation might be explained by the contrast between the structural view and the volitional view of task interdependence.

Within‐ and between‐person effects of causal attributions on relationship improvement following perceived incivility

AbstractWorkplace incivility research has grown considerably over recent decades. However, this stream of research still has not adequately explained targets' attributions for experienced incivility or their potential positive responses to incivility. The present study longitudinally investigates the relationship between attributions for workplace incivility and relationship improvement responses with data from 1871 person‐month observations. In contrast to expectations, we found targets' beliefs that their relationship with the uncivil coworker was the cause of the incivility (i.e., relational locus of causality) were negatively related to relationship improvement behaviours. The results also indicated that this negative relationship was attenuated by belief that the target had control over the cause of incivility (i.e., internal controllability) and task interdependence at the between‐person level, and by belief that the uncivil coworker had control over the cause of incivility (i.e., external controllability) at the within‐person level. Direct effects analysis indicated that internal and external controllability attributions for incivility had significant positive between‐person effects on relationship improvement efforts. Frequency of interaction and task interdependence were both significant positive predictors of relationship improvement efforts at both the between‐ and within‐person levels. Implications for research and future directions are discussed.

Collaborative learning-based inter-dependent task dispatching and co-location in an integrated edge computing system

Recently, several edge deployment types, such as on-premise edge clusters, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-attached edge devices, telecommunication base stations installed with edge clusters, etc., are being deployed to enable faster response time for latency-sensitive tasks. One fundamental problem is where and how to offload and schedule multi-dependent tasks so as to minimize their collective execution time and to achieve high resource utilization. Existing approaches randomly dispatch tasks naively to available edge nodes without considering the resource demands of tasks, inter-dependencies of tasks and edge resource availability. These approaches can result in the longer waiting time for tasks due to insufficient resource availability or dependency support, as well as provider lock-in. Therefore, we present EdgeColla, which is based on the integration of edge resources running across multi-edge deployments. EdgeColla leverages learning techniques to intelligently dispatch multi-dependent tasks, and a variant bin-packing optimization method to co-locate these tasks firmly on available nodes to optimally utilize them. Extensive experiments on real-world datasets from Alibaba on task dependencies show that our approach can achieve optimal performance than the baseline schemes.

Exploring the transactive relationships of influence factors for online asynchronous learning transactive memory system

Transactive memory system (TMS) makes learning and transferring knowledge easy and efficient. This study has constructed a conceptual model of TMS to reveal the crucial factors influencing the formation of a TMS in online asynchronous learning to foster knowledge sharing and collaboration and enhance knowledge transfer effectiveness. The conceptual model of TMS is built upon theoretical foundations concerning the creation of TMS and the variables influencing them. The study has put forth a set of hypotheses to predict the expected effects of group factors, individual factors, task interdependence, the degree of intellectual silence, and knowledge management on the formation of TMS. In this study, a total of 229 questionnaire data were collected from undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students in Northeast China who had experience with an online asynchronous learning TMS. Structural equation modeling has been employed to identify the key indicators involved and their influence on the formation of TMS. The empirical study was carried out using statistical analysis of SPSS data, with the results indicating that each factor has varying impacts on knowledge management, ultimately affecting the formation of TMS. These findings provide a more nuanced understanding of how these factors shape online asynchronous learning environments.

Does it take two to tango? Combined effects of relational job crafting and job design on energy and performance

SummaryDespite an extensive body of research on job crafting, our understanding of how bottom‐up job crafting behaviors interact with top‐down job design in influencing employee effectiveness remains limited. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we developed and tested a theoretical framework to examine the implications of daily promotion‐ versus prevention‐oriented relational job crafting on employees' energy and subsequent task performance, in the context of relational job design (i.e., task interdependence). To test our theorizing, we conducted two experience‐sampling studies over 10 workdays with full‐time employees across various organizations (Study 1: Nday‐level = 845, Nperson‐level = 126; Study 2: Nday‐level = 793, Nperson‐level = 108). Multilevel path modeling indicated promotion‐oriented relational job crafting was positively associated with subsequent task performance by increasing energy levels (Study 2), particularly when task interdependence was low (Study 1). In contrast, prevention‐oriented relational job crafting was energy depleting in low‐task‐interdependent contexts (Study 2) but increased employees' energy in high‐task‐interdependent contexts (Study 1). Our findings suggest different forms of day‐to‐day relational job crafting behaviors are relevant for employees' energy and performance, but their effectiveness may depend on the relational job‐design context.

Task structure and knowledge transfer: leveraging employee agility performance in an ESM environment

ABSTRACT The current study employs communication visibility theory to examine the nexus between task structure, knowledge transfer, and employee agility. We further investigated the role of ESM in facilitating knowledge transfer and its effects on employee agility. Utilising cross-sectional data from Chinese employees working in different organisations, structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied to 425 samples using AMOS version 24.0. Results reveal that task interdependence significantly influences both knowledge-sharing and knowledge-hiding behaviours in organisations. Moreover, task complexity positively affects knowledge sharing but negatively impacts knowledge hiding. The results also indicate that knowledge sharing positively correlates with employee agility, while knowledge hiding has a negative association with employee agility. Additionally, knowledge sharing mediates the relationship between task interdependence, task complexity, and employee agility, as does knowledge hiding. Furthermore, ESM usage strengthens the relationship between knowledge sharing and employee agility, although it does not moderate the link between knowledge hiding and employee agility. The study concludes with substantial theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research.

Person organization fit to reduce employee turnover intention using digital task interdependence as a moderation variable at PT Saraswanti Anugerah Makmur, Indonesia

Person organization fit to reduce employee turnover intention using digital task interdependence as a moderation variable at PT Saraswanti Anugerah Makmur, Indonesia