Management & Organization
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Item Can voice harm team performance?: The role of relationship conflict and trust(2018) Baker, Bradley Edward; Chen, Gilad; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite research substantiating the idea that when team members voice ideas and suggestions their team can perform better, some scholars have warned that voice can also harm team performance. Yet, our understanding of when, why, and how voice can undermine team functioning is still limited. Attempting to address these research gaps, I integrate and build on threat rigidity theory and regulatory focus theory to propose that the reason why voice has the potential to undermine team performance is because it can trigger relationship conflict – and that prohibitive voice, as compared to promotive voice, has a greater potential to trigger relationship conflict, especially when team trust is low. I test this theory using a time-lagged, laboratory study with 87 teams, as well as a time-lagged, multi-source field study with 49 teams of U.S. Air Force officers. Across studies, I largely do not find support for my hypotheses. For example, opposite of my predictions, it appears that both promotive and prohibitive voice have either a non-significant or negative effect on relationship conflict; however, I find partial support for the hypothesis that trust moderates the relationship between prohibitive voice and relationship conflict. Despite these mixed findings, this research contributes to the voice, teams, relationship conflict, and trust literatures by empirically investigating whether voice can undermine team performance.Item THE ROLE OF PROACTIVITY IN OVERCOMING THREAT: A MODEL OF TEAM LEARNING(2014) Firth, Brady; Tangirala, Subrahmaniam; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Team learning is critical for teams to be successful in dynamic environments. However, teams often experience threats that can lead to rigid approaches to their work. Threats can cause teams to rely on well-known responses to their tasks and prevent them from exploring new ideas and opportunities. Consequently, threats can be associated with diminished learning in teams. I focus on this issue by examining the following question: What enables teams to reduce the negative effects of threat on team learning? I argue that when confronting threat, teams composed of members with higher proactive personality are likely to more positively frame the threat and engage in behaviors that enable them to explore alternative approaches to their work. Therefore, I propose that proactivity can help teams buffer against the negative effects of threat on team learning processes, which include behaviors such as seeking feedback, engaging in experimentation, and discussing errors. I test my hypotheses in an experimental study in which 94 5-person teams work on a command and control simulation. I manipulate a) team composition with respect to proactivity and b) threat, which was conceptualized as a potential loss to personal reputation and public discrediting for poor performance. Results indicate that irrespective of their proactivity levels, teams demonstrated high levels of team learning processes in the absence of threat. By contrast, in the presence of threat, only teams in the high proactivity condition maintained high levels of learning processes whereas teams in the low proactivity condition displayed significantly diminished learning processes and (subsequent) performance.Item Timing It Right: Temporal Contingencies and Cascading Effects of Leadership in Action Teams(2012) Farh, Crystal I. C.; Chen, Gilad; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite widespread recognition of the influential role of time in teams, these temporal components have been insufficiently integrated in existing models of team leadership. Current approaches to team leadership emphasize the importance of using different behaviors under different circumstances (e.g., contingency theories of leadership), but assume these contingencies to be static, when in reality, they fluctuate over the course of achieving a single collective task. The purpose of this dissertation is to develop and empirically test a temporal contingency theory of leadership in action teams, in part because action teams must manage shifting task goals, task intensity, and team development needs over the course of performing a single collective task. Drawing on temporal theories relevant to action teams, such as Marks, Mathieu, and Zaccaro's (2001) transition-action phase framework, McGrath's (1991) task cycle theory, and theories of team development (e.g., Kozlowski, Gully, Nason, & Smith, 1999), I examine ways in which the internal environment of the team shifts dramatically between preparatory and executionary periods. I then compare and contrast three forms of leader behavior shown to be relevant and effective in action teams - directing, coaching, and relating - and argue that each leads to effective functioning differently in each phase. Specifically, I propose that coaching behaviors increase team functioning early on during a phase of task preparation and that this relationship is enhanced when coaching is used in combination with relating behaviors, whereas directive behaviors increase team functioning later on during a phase of task execution. I further propose that leader behaviors occurring early on initiate preparatory, teamwork processes that endure over time and exert cascading influences on subsequent executionary, teamwork processes. Using live, time-sensitive observation methodology, I test these propositions in a sample of 58 surgical team episodes. Key findings are largely consistent with the proposed relationships in my model and lend support to existing theories that integrate the role of time with team leadership theory, challenge comparatively static team leadership and contingency leadership theories to incorporate a more fine-grained approach to understanding temporal dynamics affecting teams, and yield practical implications around time-sensitive leader training.Item How does creativity occur in teams? An empirical test(2010) Jin, Sirkwoo; Shapiro, Debra L; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Organizations benefit when workteams produce more rather than less creativity. What actions in organizations help this to occur - on the part of team leaders and team members? This is the primary question that my dissertation aims to answer. More specifically, I hypothesize that team leaders' behaviors (e.g., transformational, empowering, and boundary-working behaviors) lead to team members' affective and cognitive experiences (e.g., positive group affective tone, team empowerment) that in turn lead to teamwork processes (e.g., information sharing and boundary-spanning among team members) that ultimately lead to team creativity. Thus, my dissertation attempts to explain how and why team creativity occurs. Results from 52 organizational R&D teams suggest support for these hypothesized relationships and for the theoretical model overall. I conclude by discussing my findings' implications for managers and management scholars interested in enhancing team creativity.Item CUTTING ACROSS TEAM BOUNDARIES: ANTECEDENTS AND IMPLICATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL BOUNDARY SPANNING BEHAVIOR WITHIN CONSULTING TEAMS(2004-07-28) Marrone, Jennifer Ann; Tesluk, Paul E; Management and Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Boundary spanning activities, or external team processes such as establishing and managing relationships with key external parties to the team, are critical to the success of many organizational work teams. Surprisingly, however, while the performance benefits of team boundary management have been documented in several seminal pieces by Ancona and her colleagues (e.g., Ancona, 1990; Ancona & Caldwell, 1992), little research has directly explored the role of the individual team members in carrying out these critical activities or if performance benefits exist for those engaging in boundary management for their teams. My dissertation addresses these limitations by considering potential predictors and consequences of individual boundary spanning behavior within a team setting. By investigating several personal and motivational antecedents to boundary spanning, I seek to expand previous teams research by predicting why particular team members engage in critical boundary spanning behaviors. Furthermore, complementing existing support for the performance benefits accompanying boundary management at the team level of analysis, I explore the consequences of boundary spanning on individual level outcomes, namely, peer ratings of individual leadership and contributions to the team. Finally, I present two sets of alternative hypotheses postulating a mediating and a moderating role for information network centrality in the boundary spanning behavior-individual outcome relationship. Hypotheses for this dissertation were tested using data from 27 consulting teams, comprised of 171 full-time MBA students. Data were collected primarily through surveys administered to team members at multiple points in time and were analyzed via hierarchical linear modeling, regression, and social network techniques. Results indicated partial support for the predictive value of self-monitoring, proactive personality, and boundary management self-efficacy on an individual's engagement in boundary spanning behaviors within their team. Additionally, boundary spanning directed toward clients and general scanning / scouting of the environment showed strong relationships with peer ratings of individual leadership and contributions, revealing that those engaging in boundary spanning behaviors were highly valued team members. Interestingly, the relationships between these boundary spanning behaviors and individual outcomes were fully mediated by information network centrality. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.