Fluid teams and fluid tasks
Subtitle: the impact of diversity in experience and team familiarity
By: Robert S. Huckman, Bradley R. Staats
Contributors: Staats, Bradley R.; Harvard Business School
Edition: 3rd rev.
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 09-145; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 09-145.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2010
Place of publication: [Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 33
Description: In this paper, we consider how fluid teams and fluid tasks interact to affect team performance. We study the effect of diversity in experience on a team's ability to respond to changing tasks by separately examining interpersonal team diversity (i.e., the difference in experience across the entire team) and intrapersonal team diversity (i.e., whether individuals on the team are more or less specialized). We also, examine whether team familiarity - team members' prior experience working with one another - helps teams to cope with the expected challenges created by changing tasks and greater interpersonal team diversity. Using detailed project- and individual-level data from an Indian software services firm, we find that the interaction of task change and intrapersonal diversity is related to improved project performance while the interaction of task change and interpersonal diversity is related to worse project performance. These results suggest that though diverse experience across team members decreases flexibility to change, diverse experience within team members increases flexibility. Additionally, we find that team familiarity partially alleviates the negative effect of interpersonal diversity on two of our three dimensions of project performance. Our results highlight the need for more nuanced approaches to leveraging experience in managing teams.
Notes: "June 2009, revised August 2009, November 2009, April 2010"--Publisher's website.

Previously published as: Fluid teams and fluid tasks: the impact of team familiarity and variation in experience.

Includes bibliographical references.