Deborah Ancona

Beyond Task and Maintenance Defining External Functions in Groups

Using interview and log data from 38 new product team managers and 15 team members, we identify a set of activities that group members use to manage their dependence on external groups. Team members carry out scout, ambassador, sentry, and guard activities along with immigrant, captive, and emigrant roles to manage external transactions. It is hypothesized that high team performance is associated with a fit between the level of boundary activity and the degree of resource dependence.

In praise of the incomplete leader

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

Improving the Performance of New Product Teams

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

The Functional Perspective as a Lens for Understanding Groups

The functional perspective is a normative approach to describing and predicting group performance that focuses on the functions of inputs and/or processes. The aim of theory and research from this perspective is to understand why some groups are successful and others are not. This article investigates theory and, to a lesser extent, research of small groups based on the functional perspective. The authors present the underlying theoretical assumptions and review theories that fit into the functional perspective from several representative areas of research. They conclude by outlining notable strengths and weaknesses associated with viewing groups from this perspective and propose some directions for future theory development.

The Dance of Entrainment: Temporally Navigating across Multiple Pacers

Previous research suggests that teams pace their change either internally to coincide with the midpoint, deadline, or task phases, or externally by entraining to exogenous pacers. Other research suggests that teams adapt to random environmental shocks. This paper investigates if, how, and when endogenous, exogenous, and random pacers affect the patterns of change in groups. We studied five software development teams during a turbulent two-year period. Our case studies and supporting analyses suggest that teams perform a “dance of entrainment”—simultaneously creating multiple rhythms and choreographing their activities to mesh with different pacers at different times.

THE EFFECT OF TEMPORAL ENTRAINMENT ON THE ABILITY OF TEAMS TO CHANGE THEIR ROUTINES

This chapter examines the relationship between team routines and temporal entrainment. While the process of entrainment generally reinforces the routines that teams follow temporal entrainment also creates opportunities for externally focused teams to change their routines. Entrainment creates team rhythms that include pauses in activity that can act as triggers to change. These pauses alone are not enough to impel teams to change; managers must also employ temporal design to make use of these opportunities for change. Both the rhythms of temporal entrainment and the pauses that accompany them are part of a team’s task environment. By uncovering key rhythms, as well as by managing the pauses, managers can both reinforce desired routines and change problematic ones.

PERFORMANCE STRATEGIES FOR INTERDEPENDENT ORGANIZATIONAL TEAMS.

Using a sample of forty-five new product teams this study examines how groups interact with their organizational environment. Four key activity sets were identified: ambassador, task coordinator, scout, and guard. Results support the need to study the content, as well as the frequency, of external communications.

Strategies for Learning: Small-Group Activities in American, Japanese, and Swedish Industry.

How do firms become motivated to adopt small-group activities such as quality circles and self-managing teams? How do they acquire expertise in these activities? Noted sociologist and management expert Robert E. Cole addresses these issues through an examination of small-group activities in the United States, Japan and Sweden during the past twenty-five years.