The impact of transactive memory systems on IS development teams' coordination, communication, and performance

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Shih-Chieh Hsu ◽  
Sheng-Pao Shih ◽  
Jerry C. Chiang ◽  
Julie Yu-Chih Liu
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yide Shen ◽  
Michael J. Gallivan ◽  
Xinlin Tang

With distributed teams becoming increasingly common in organizations, improving their performance is a critical challenge for both practitioners and researchers. This research examines how group members' perception of subgroup formation affects team performance in fully distributed teams. The authors propose that individual members' perception about the presence of subgroups within the team has a negative effect on team performance, which manifests itself through decreases in a team's transactive memory system (TMS). Using data from 154 members of 41 fully distributed teams (where no group members were colocated), the authors found that members' perceptions of the existence of subgroups impair the team's TMS and its overall performance. They found these effects to be statistically significant. In addition, decreases in a group's TMS partially mediate the effect of perceived subgroup formation on team performance. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for managerial action, as well as for researchers, and they propose directions for future research.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 894-908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan Bonner ◽  
Michael R. Baumann ◽  
Alexander C. Romney

People collaborate to address tasks that can often be decomposed into smaller components. These components beg different forms of expertise and may differ in value to the group. We show that transactive memory structure is affected by the interaction between task component value, incentive framing (i.e., whether task incentives take the form of gains or losses), and the distribution of expertise with respect to task components. We find that when groups include a member with expertise in a highly valuable task component, that member is exceptionally motivated and puts forth high levels of effort. Only groups with such an expert successfully realized the potential performance benefit associated with high-value domains. Groups recalled more items under loss framing than under gains framing, but only when the potential losses were low and constant across components. We integrate our findings into the extant literatures on transactive memory and gains/loss framing.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 919-945 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ciaran Heavey ◽  
Zeki Simsek

How can a firm develop, distribute, and use knowledge more effectively and efficiently in ways that increase its ability to pursue an ambidextrous orientation? Synthesizing insights from social cognition and upper-echelons perspectives, we offer a new theoretical vantage point that brings the role of top management teams’ cognitive structure to the fore and, in particular, the enabling influence of transactive memory systems. We argue that transactive memory provides a top management team with a system for generating, distributing, and integrating knowledge based on members’ specific areas of expertise in ways that increase its ability to both differentiate and integrate strategic agendas for ambidexterity. From a multisource study of top management teams in a sample of technology-based small-to-medium-sized firms, we find that while top management teams with well-developed transactive memory systems are able to pursue an ambidextrous orientation, the impact of transactive memory is also shaped by diverse organizational experience and functional expertise within these teams. We discuss the scope and significance of these findings for theory, future research, and managerial practice.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document