Transcending knowledge differences in cross-functional teams

Organization Science

Volumn 23, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 951-970

  Majchrzak, Ann ^a   More, Philip H B ^a   Faraj, Samer ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b MCGILL UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

Agile teams; Cross functional teams history; Emergent teams; Group creativity; Innovation; Knowledge integration

Indexed keywords

EID: 84867065135     PISSN: 10477039     EISSN: 15265455     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1110.0677     Document Type: Article

References (54)

1. Argyris, C., D. A. Schön. 1978. Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
2. Bechky, B. A. 2003a. Object lessons: Workplace artifacts as representations of occupational jurisdiction. Amer. J. Sociol. 109(3) 720-752.
3. Bechky, B. A. 2003b. Sharing meaning across occupational communities: The transformation of understanding on a production floor. Organ. Sci. 14(3) 312-330.
4. Boland, R. J., Jr., R. V. Tenkasi. 1995. Perspective making and perspective taking in communities of knowing. Organ. Sci. 6(4) 350-372.
5. Bourdieu, P. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK.
6. Bunderson, J. S., K. M. Sutcliffe. 2002. Comparing alternative conceptualizations of functional diversity in management teams: Process and performance effects. Acad. Management J. 45(5) 875-893.
7. Carlile, P. R. 2002. A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: Boundary object in new product development. Organ. Sci. 13(4) 442-455.
8. Carlile, P. R. 2004. Transferring, translating, and transforming: An integrative framework for managing knowledge across boundaries. Organ. Sci. 15(5) 555-568.
9. Carlile, P. R., E. S. Rebentisch. 2003. Into the black box: The knowledge transformation cycle. Management Sci. 49(9) 1180-1195.
10. Cook, S. D. N., J. S. Brown. 2000. Bridging epistemologies: The generative dance between organizational knowledge and organizational knowing. Organ. Sci. 10(4) 381-400.
11. Cramton, C. D. 2001. The mutual knowledge problem and its consequences for dispersed collaboration. Organ. Sci. 12(3) 346-371.
12. Cronin, M. A., L. R. Weingart. 2007. Representational gaps, information processing, and conflict in functionally diverse teams. Acad. Management Rev. 32(3) 761-773.
13. Dammann, O., A. Kieser. 2010. Collaboration between specialists in chemical innovation projects: Mechanisms of knowledge integration. Paper presented at the 26th EGOS Colloquium, June, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
14. Donnellon, A., B. Gray, M. G. Bougon. 1986. Communication, meaning and organized action. Admin. Sci. Quart. 31(1) 43-55.
15. Dougherty, D. 1992. Interpretive barriers to successful product innovation in large firms. Organ. Sci. 3(2) 179-202.
16. Dougherty, D. 2001. Reimagining the differentiation and integration of work for sustained product innovation. Organ. Sci. 12(5) 612-631.
17. Dougherty, D., J. N. Tolboom. 2008. Creative organizing to enable organizational creativity. J. Zhou, C. E. Shalley, eds. Handbook of Organizational Creativity. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, 237-262.
18. Drazin, R., R. K. Kazanjian, M. Glynn. 2008. Creativity and sensemaking among professionals. J. Zhou, C. E. Shalley, eds. Handbook of Organizational Creativity. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, 263-282.
19. Edmondson, A. C. 1999. Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Admin. Sci. Quart. 44(2) 350-383.
20. Edmondson, A. C. 2002. The local and variegated nature of learning in organizations: A group-level perspective. Organ. Sci. 13(2) 128-146.
21. Edmondson, A. C., I. M. Nembhard. 2009. Product development and learning in project teams: The challenges are the benefits. J. Product Innovation Management 26(2) 123-138.
22. Edmondson, A. C., R. M. Bohmer, G. P. Pisano. 2001. Disrupted routines: Team learning and new technology implementation in hospitals. Admin. Sci. Quart. 46(4) 685-716.
23. Ewenstein, B., J. Whyte. 2009. Knowledge practices in design: The role of visual representations as " epistemic objects." Organ. Stud. 30(1) 7-30.
24. Faraj, S., Y. Xiao. 2006. Coordination in fast-response organizations. Management Sci. 52(8) 1155-1169.
25. Giddens, A. 1979. Central Problems of Social Theory: Action, Structure, and Contradiction in Social Analysis. Macmillan, London.
26. Hackman, J. R. 2002. Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances. Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
27. Hansen, M. T. 1999. The search-transfer problem: The role of weak ties in sharing knowledge across organizational subunits. Admin. Sci. Quart. 44(1) 82-111.
28. Hargadon, A. B., B. A. Bechky. 2006. When collections of creatives become creative collectives: A field study of problem solving at work. Organ. Sci. 17(4) 484-500.
29. Harrison, D. A., K. J. Klein. 2007. What's the difference? Diversity constructs as separation, variety, or disparity in organizations. Acad. Management Rev. 32(4) 1199-1228.
30. Jehn, K. A., G. B. Northcraft, M. A. Neale. 1999. Why differences make a difference: A field study of diversity, conflict, and performance in workgroups Admin. Sci. Quart. 44(4) 741-763.
31. Karau, S. J., J. R. Kelly. 1992. The effects of time pressure and time abundance on group performance quality and interaction process. J. Experiment. Soc. Psych. 28(6) 542-571.
32. Kellogg, K. C., W. J. Orlikowski, J. Yates. 2006. Life in the trading zone: Structuring coordination across boundaries in postbureaucratic organizations. Organ. Sci. 17(1) 22-44.
33. Kelly, J. R., J. W. Jackson, S. L. Hutson-Comeaux 1997. The effects of time pressure and task differences on influence modes and accuracy in decision-making groups. Personality Soc. Psych. Bull. 23(1) 10-22.
34. Law, J., V. Singleton. 2005. Object lessons. Organization 12(3) 331-355.
35. Leonard-Barton, D. 1995. Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation. Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
36. Lovelace, K., D. L. Shapiro, L. R. Weingart. 2001. Maximizing crossfunctional new product teams' innovativeness and constraint adherence: A conflict communications perspective. Acad. Management J. 44(4) 779-793.
37. Nonaka, I. 1994. A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organ. Sci. 5(1) 14-37.
38. Okhuysen, G. A., B. A. Bechky. 2009. Coordination in organizations: An integrative perspective. Acad. Management Ann. 3(1) 463-502.
39. Okhuysen, G. A., K. M. Eisenhardt. 2002. Integrating knowledge in groups: How formal interventions enable flexibility. Organ. Sci. 13(4) 370-386.
40. Palincsar, A. S., A. L. Brown. 1984. Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition Instruction 1(2) 117-175.
41. Polzer, J. T., L. P. Milton, W. B. Swann Jr. 2002. Capitalizing on diversity: Interpersonal congruence in small work groups. Admin. Sci. Quart. 47(2) 296-324.
42. Rico, R., M. Sánchez-Manzanares, F. Gil, C. Gibson. 2008. Team implicit coordination processes: A team knowledge-based approach. Acad. Management Rev. 33(1) 163-184.
43. Rosenshine, B., C. Meister. 1992. The use of scaffolds for teaching higher-level cognitive strategies. Ed. Leadership 49(7) 26-33.
44. Schmickl, C., A. Kieser. 2008. How much do specialists have to learn from each other when they jointly develop radical product innovations? Res. Policy 37(6-7) 1148-1163.
45. Schön, D. A. 1993. Generative metaphor: A perspective on problemsetting in social policy. A. Ortony, ed. Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 137-163.
46. Sheramata, W. A. 2000. Centrifugal and centripetal forces in radical new product development under time pressure. Acad. Management Rev. 25(2) 389-408.
47. Skilton, P. F., K. J. Dooley. 2010. The effects of repeat collaboration on creative abrasion. Acad. Management Rev. 35(1) 118-134.
48. Sole, D., A. Edmondson. 2002. Situated knowledge and learning in dispersed teams. British J. Management 13(S2) S17-S34.
49. Star, S. L., J. R. Griesemer. 1989. Institutional ecology, " translations" and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39. Soc. Stud. Sci. 19(3) 387-420.
50. Tsoukas, H. 2009. A dialogical approach to the creation of new knowledge in organizations. Organ. Sci. 20(6) 941-957.
51. Tucker, A. L., I. M. Nembhard, A. C. Edmondson. 2007. Implementing new practices: An empirical study of organizational learning in hospital intensive care units. Management Sci. 53(6) 894-907.
52. Van Der Vegt, G. S., J. S. Bunderson. 2005. Learning and performance in multidisciplinary teams: The importance of collective team identification. Acad. Management J. 48(3) 532-547.
53. Wixted, J. T. 2004. The psychology and neuroscience of forgetting. Annual Rev. Psych. 55 235-269.
54. Wood, D. J., J. S. Bruner, G. Ross. 1976. The role of tutoring in problem solving. J. Child Psych. Psychiatry 17(2) 89-100.