Mary E. Zellmer-Bruhn

Metaphors and meaning: An intercultural analysis of the concept of teamwork

This paper develops a conceptual framework to explain different understandings of the concept of teamwork across national and organizational cultures. Five different metaphors for teamwork (military, sports, community, family, and associates) were derived from the language team members used during interviews in four different geographic locations of six multinational corporations. Results indicated that use of the teamwork metaphors varies across countries and organizations, after controlling for gender, team function, and total words in an interview. Analyses of specific relationships between national cultural values and categories of metaphor use and between dimensions of organizational culture and categories of metaphor use revealed patterns of expectations about team roles, scope, membership, and objectives that arise in different cultural contexts. We discuss the implications of this variance for future research on teams and the management of teams in multinational organizations.

Multinational Organization Context: Implications for Team Learning and Performance

Integrating and extending literature on international management and team effectiveness, we examined how macro context in multinational organizations (MNCs) influences work team learning and how team learning influences task performance and interpersonal relations. We examined these influences in a multimethod study of 115 teams in 20 subsidiaries of five MNCs. Controlling for micro contextual features, including team type, training, feedback, and autonomy, we found that organizational contexts emphasizing global integration reduced team learning, but those emphasizing responsiveness and knowledge management increased team learning. Team learning in turn positively influenced both task performance and the quality of interpersonal relations.

Interruptive Events and Team Knowledge Acquisition

Interruptions have commonly been viewed as negative and as something for managers to control or limit. In this paper, I explore the relationship between interruptions and acquisition of routines-a form of knowledge-by teams. Recent research suggests that interruptions may play an important role in changing organizational routines, and as such may influence knowledge transfer activities. Results suggest that interruptions influence knowledge transfer effort, and both knowledge transfer effort and interruptions are positively related to the acquisition of new work routines. I conclude with implications for research and practice.

Entrepreneurial Team Formation: An Exploration of New Member Addition

We explored in this article the process of entrepreneurial team formation. As theory specific to this topic is scant, we drew first on disparate views of team formation and its correlates; we then called upon in–depth interviews to provide deeper, nuanced insights into this dynamic process of creation. Our focus is team member addition. We identified resource–seeking and interpersonal attraction as primary alternative motivators for new teammate addition; however, we also illustrated how these motivations may be complementary in practice. Finally, we considered in some depth how new member identification and selection processes may unfold as new ventures are formed.

WATCHING THE CLOCK: GROUP PACING BEHAVIOR UNDER DYNAMIC DEADLINES

Attention to time is generally regarded as the catalyst that motivates groups to pace work under deadlines. We tested this assumption in 38 groups, some working under stable deadlines and others working under changed deadlines. Our results indicate that groups steadily increase attention to time as deadlines near, rather than sharply increasing such attention at the midpoint, but they engage in task transitions at or near the midpoint of allotted time.

Team Effectiveness in Multinational Organizations Evaluation Across Contexts

Incorporating team context into research and practice concerning team effectiveness in multinational organizations is an ongoing challenge. The authors argue that a common measure of team effectiveness with demonstrated equivalence across contexts expands current theoretical developments and addresses team implementation needs. To this end, the article describes methods, techniques, and results obtained in developing a comprehensive team effectiveness survey across six multinational organizations in four geographic regions. The authors discuss inductively deriving dimensions of effectiveness using interview data, translation procedures with innovative bilingual pilot testing, and multiple constituency validation. The study concludes with implications for future cross-cultural research on team effectiveness and beyond in other areas of international management.

The effects of individual time urgency on group polychronicity

Recent work concerning the effects of time on group behavior suggests that individuals’ time‐oriented behaviors may act as a catalyst or pacing mechanism for subsequent group behaviors. Other work suggests that group polychronic behavior (the group’s performance of multiple tasks simultaneously) has significant effects on both individual and group outcomes. In this paper, we examine the relationship between individuals’ time‐oriented behavior and group‐level polychronic behavior. Based on results from a laboratory simulation involving 26 small groups, we conclude that the presence of time‐urgent group members increases group‐level monochronic (versus polychronic) behavior and has a positive effect on groups’ primary task activity.

The Structural Context of Team Learning: Effects of Organizational and Team Structure on Internal and External Learning

This paper reports on a study of structural antecedents to team learning. In a study of self-managed pharmaceutical research and development teams, we first find that more team-level structure is associated with more internal learning as well as more external learning. We then establish that more organizational-level structure is negatively associated with both internal and external learning. We find that psychological safety mediates the positive relationship between team structure and team learning, and that task autonomy constraints mediate the negative relationship between organizational structure and team learning. Investigating the interaction effect between team and organizational structure, we find, unexpectedly, that organizational structure supports external team learning under conditions of less team structure. Specifically, when teams have less team structure, the relationship between organizational structure and external team learning is positive. This structure substitutability finding suggests that although more organizational structure, on average, hurts external team learning, there are situations in which it helps. An important implication of the study is that multiple levels of structure, and their interactions, should be taken into consideration when assessing structural effects on team learning.

Assessing Group-Level Constructs Under Missing Data Conditions: A Monte Carlo Simulation:

The authors reviewed recently published research on small groups and teams to understand how within-team nonresponse is reported and handled. They used Monte Carlo simulation to investigate how data-handling choices affect measurement reliability and hypothesis testing under conditions of random and systematic nonresponse. More complete reporting of nonresponse is recommended by the authors, and they propose guidelines for analyzing team-level constructs using data from teams without full response.

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.