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

Abstract

Organizations use multiple team membership to enhance individual and team productivity and learning, but this structure creates competing pressures on attention and information, which make it difficult to increase both productivity and learning. Our model describes how the number and variety of multiple team memberships drive different mechanisms, yielding distinct effects. We show how carefully balancing the number and variety of team memberships can enhance both productivity and learning.