Improving Performance of Product Development Teams through Managing Polarity

Jo M. L. van Engelen, Derk Jan Kiewiet and Pieter Terlouw

International Studies of Management & Organization, 2001, vol. 31, issue 1, 46-63

Abstract: The new economy urges product development cycles to become shorter. At the same time, the accompanying new communication technology offers the opportunity to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of product development because it is no longer necessary for the members of product development teams to be in the same geographic location. As a result, product development teams become virtual. The concept of polarity is introduced as a measure of conflict and as an instrument to manage these virtual teams more effectively and to enhance the performance of teams.The relationship between polarity and performance is modeled on data provided by 35 product development teams. Polarity is broken down into several factors; and the polarity-performance relationship is presented for every factor. Three sets of different factor polarity curves were found. One set shows a clearly positive effect of polarity on performance, although another set shows a clearly negative effect. A third set shows a more complicated relationship, which indicates that these factors can be further distilled. These relationships are explainable and provide input for further research leading to a useful polarity-performance strategy for virtual product development teams.

Date: 2001
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DOI: 10.1080/00208825.2001.11656807

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