Constructing the Team: The Antecedents and Effects of Membership Model Divergence

Mark Mortensen ()
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Mark Mortensen: INSEAD, 77305 Fontainebleau, France

Organization Science, 2014, vol. 25, issue 3, 909-931

Abstract: Scholars have established that team membership has wide-ranging effects on cognition, dynamics, processes, and performance. Underlying that scholarship is the assumption that team membership—who is and who is not a team member—is straightforward, unambiguous, and agreed upon by all members. Contrary to this assumption, I posit that mental models of membership increasingly diverge within teams as a result of changing environmental conditions. I build on the literatures on membership and on shared mental models to explore such “membership model divergence.” In a study of 38 formally defined software and product development teams, I test a model of structural and emergent drivers of membership model divergence and examine its effect on performance operating through team-level cognition. I use the findings of this study to explore its implications for both management theory and managerial practice.

Keywords: teams; membership; composition; boundaries; mental models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:25:y:2014:i:3:p:909-931

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