Multiple Team Membership: A Theoretical Model of its Effects on Productivity and Learning for Individuals, Teams, and Organizations

Abstract:     
While organizations strive to manage the time and attention of workers effectively, the practice of asking workers to contribute to multiple teams simultaneously can result in the opposite. We present a model of the effects of multiple team membership (MTM) on learning and productivity via the mediating processes of individual context switching, team temporal misalignment, and intra-organizational connectivity. These effects are curvilinear, with learning and productivity peaking at moderate levels of these mediating processes.

Keywords: muliple team membership

Working Paper Series