Multiple team membership and job performance: The role of employees' information-sharing networks

Hendrik J. van de Brake*, Frank Walter, Floor A. Rink, Peter J. M. D. Essens, Gerben S. van der Vegt

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)
119 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Individuals in contemporary work organizations are often involved in multiple teams at the same time. This study uses a social capital perspective to propose that employees' multiple team memberships (MTM) offer the potential for individual performance benefitsanddetriments, depending on the characteristics of an employee's information-sharing network. To test our predictions, we gathered both archival and survey data at an organization for applied research in the Netherlands. We found that individual MTM was indirectly associated with an employee's overall job performance by increasing the size of his or her information-sharing network. As expected, however, this indirect relationship was contingent on the average strength of an employee's network ties (i.e., the frequency of the respective interactions), such that MTM only improved overall performance when network ties were relatively weak. The indirect relationship between MTM and individual job performance was negative, by contrast, when an employee's network ties were relatively strong. Together, these findings advance our understanding of the mechanisms and contingency factors that shape the performance consequences associated with individuals' concurrent membership in multiple teams. Practitioner points

An employee's membership in multiple teams at the same time increases the size of his or her information-sharing network within the organization. The performance consequences associated with this increased information-sharing network hinge on the characteristics of an employee's information-sharing network. If the respective information-sharing linkages are based on relatively infrequent interactions with colleagues, an employee's multiple team membership indirectly benefits his or her overall job performance. If the respective information-sharing linkages are based on relatively frequent and intense interactions with colleagues, however, an employee's multiple team membership indirectly diminishes his or her overall job performance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)967-987
Number of pages21
JournalJournal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
Volume93
Issue number4
Early online date27-Jul-2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec-2020

Keywords

  • information-sharing
  • job performance
  • multiple team membership
  • social networks
  • the strength of weak ties
  • SOCIAL NETWORKS
  • WEAK-TIES
  • KNOWLEDGE
  • PRODUCTIVITY
  • CITIZENSHIP
  • ANTECEDENTS
  • CREATIVITY
  • CENTRALITY
  • STRENGTH
  • IMPACT

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