Distributed Cognition in Top Management Teams and Organizational Ambidexterity: The Influence of Transactive Memory Systems

Journal of Management

Volumn 43, Issue 3, 2017, Pages 919-945

  Heavey, Ciaran ^a   Simsek, Zeki ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN   (Ireland)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT   (United States)

Author keywords

ambidexterity; CEO; diversity; top management team; transactive memory

Indexed keywords

EID: 85011581569     PISSN: 01492063     EISSN: 15571211     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0149206314545652     Document Type: Article

References (95)

1. Alavi M., Tiwana A., 2002. Knowledge integration in virtual teams: The potential role of KMS. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53: 1029-1037.
2. Argote L., Ingram P., 2000. Knowledge transfer: A basis for competitive advantage in firms. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 82: 150-169.
3. Argote L., Ren Y. Q., 2012. Transactive memory systems: A microfoundation of dynamic capabilities. Journal of Management Studies, 49: 1375-1382.
4. Atinc G., Simmering M. J., Kroll M. J., 2012. Control variable use and reporting in macro and micro management research. Organizational Research Methods, 15: 57-74.
5. Atuahene-Gima K., Li H. Y., 2004. Strategic decision comprehensiveness and new product development outcomes in new technology ventures. Academy of Management Journal, 47: 583-597.
6. Austin J. R., 2003. Transactive memory in organizational groups: The effects of content, consensus, specialization, and accuracy on group performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88: 866-878.
7. Baron R. M., Kenny D. A., 1986. The moderator mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51: 1173-1182.
8. Bascle G., 2008. Controlling for endogeneity with instrumental variables in strategic management research. Strategic Organization, 6: 285-327.
9. Beckman C. M., 2006. The influence of founding team company affiliations on firm behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 49: 741-758.
10. Benner M. J., Tushman M. L., 2003. Exploitation, exploration, and process management: The productivity dilemma revisited. Academy of Management Review, 28: 238-256.
11. Beyer J. M., Chattopadhyay P., George E., Glick W. H., Ogilvie D. T., Pugliese D., 1997. The selective perception of managers revisited. Academy of Management Journal, 40: 716-737.
12. Brandon D. P., Hollingshead A. B., 2004. Transactive memory systems in organizations: Matching tasks, expertise, and people. Organization Science, 15: 633-644.
13. Bunderson J. S., 2003. Recognizing and utilizing expertise in work groups: A status characteristics perspective. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48: 557-591.
14. Bunderson J. S., Sutcliffe K. M., 2002. Comparing alternative conceptualizations of functional diversity in management teams: Process and performance effects. Academy of Management Journal, 45: 875-893.
15. Burke L. A., Steensma H. K., 1998. Toward a model for relating executive career experiences and firm performance. Journal of Managerial Issues, 10: 86-102.
16. Cannella A. A., Park J. H., Lee H. U., 2008. Top management team functional background diversity and firm performance: Examining the roles of team member colocation and environmental uncertainty. Academy of Management Journal, 51: 768-784.
17. Cao Q., Simsek Z., Zhang H., 2010. Modelling the joint impact of the CEO and the TMT on organizational ambidexterity. Journal of Management Studies, 47: 1272-1296.
18. Carlson K. D., Wu J., 2012 The illusion of statistical control: Control variable practice in management research. Organizational Research Methods, 15: 413-435.
19. Carmeli A., Schaubroeck J., 2006. Top management team behavioral integration, decision quality, and organizational decline. Leadership Quarterly, 17: 441-453.
20. Chatterjee A., Hambrick D. C., 2007. It’s all about me: Narcissistic chief executive officers and their effects on company strategy and performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 52: 351-386.
21. Collins C. J., Clark K. D., 2003. Strategic human resource practices, top management team social networks, and firm performance: The role of human resource practices in creating organizational competitive advantage. Academy of Management Journal, 46: 740-751.
22. Cortina J. M., 1993. Interaction, nonlinearity, and multicollinearity: Implications for multiple-regression. Journal of Management, 19: 915-922.
23. Cummins R. C., 1972. Leader-member relations as a moderator of the effects of leader behavior and attitude. Personnel Psychology, 25: 655-660.
24. Cycyota C. S., Harrison D. A., 2006. What (not) to expect when surveying executives: A meta-analysis of top manager response rates and techniques over time. Organizational Research Methods, 9: 133-160.
25. Dearborn D. C., Simon H. A., 1958. Selective perception: A note on the departmental identifications of executives. Sociometry, 21: 140-144.
26. DeChurch L. A., Mesmer-Magnus J. R., 2010. The cognitive underpinnings of effective teamwork: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95: 32-53.
27. Evans M. G., 1985. A Monte Carlo study of the effects of correlated method variance in moderated multiple regression analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 36: 305-323.
28. Finkelstein S., Hambrick D. C., Cannella A. A., 2009. Strategic leadership: Theory and research on executives, top management teams, and boards. New York: Oxford University Press.
29. Gino F., Argote L., Miron-Spektor E., Todorova G., 2010. First, get your feet wet: The effects of learning from direct and indirect experience on team creativity. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 111: 102-115.
30. Griffith T. L., Sawyer J. E., Neale M. A., 2003. Virtualness and knowledge in teams: Managing the love triangle of organizations, individuals, and information technology. MIS Quarterly, 27: 265-287.
31. Hambrick D. C., 1994. Top management groups: A conceptual integration and reconsideration of the “team” label. In Staw B. M., Cummings L. L., (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, vol. 16: 171-213. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press
32. Hambrick D. C., Geletkanycz M. A., Fredrickson J. W., 1993. Top executive commitment to the status-quo: Some tests of its determinants. Strategic Management Journal, 14: 401-418.
33. Hambrick D. C., Humphrey S. E., Gupta A., in press. Structural interdependence within top management teams: A key moderator of upper-echelons predictions. Strategic Management Journal. doi:10.1002/smj.2230
34. Hambrick D. C., Mason P. A., 1984. Upper echelons: The organization as a reflection of its top managers. Academy of Management Review, 9: 193-206.
35. Hammedi W., van Riel A. C. R., Sasovova Z., 2013. Improving screening decision making through transactive memory systems: A field study. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 30: 316-330.
36. Hargadon A. B., Bechky B. A., 2006. When collections of creatives become creative collectives: A field study of problem solving at work. Organization Science, 17: 484-500.
37. Hollingshead A. B., 1998. Retrieval processes in transactive memory systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74: 659-671.
38. Hutchins E., 1995. Cognition in the wild. Boston, MA: MIT Press.
39. Jansen J. J. P., George G., Van den Bosch F. A. J., Volberda H. W., 2008. Senior team attributes and organizational ambidexterity: The moderating role of transformational leadership. Journal of Management Studies, 45: 982-1007.
40. Jansen J. J. P., Tempelaar M. P., Van den Bosch F. A. J., Volberda H. W., 2009. Structural differentiation and ambidexterity: The mediating role of integration mechanisms. Organization Science, 20: 797-811.
41. Kline R. B., 1998. Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York: Guilford Press.
42. Kozlowski S. W. J., Klein K. J., 2000. A multilevel approach to theory and research in organizations: Contextual, temporal, and emergent processes. In Klein K. J., Kozlowski S. W. J., (Eds.), Multilevel theory, research and methods in organizations: Foundations, extensions, and new directions: 3-90. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
43. Krishnan R., Martin X., Noorderhaven N. G., 2006. When does trust matter to alliance performance? Academy of Management Journal, 49: 894-917.
44. Lance C. E., 1988. Residual centering, exploratory and confirmatory moderator analysis, and decomposition of effects in path models containing interactions. Applied Psychological Measurement, 12: 163-175.
45. Landis R. S., Dunlap W. P., 2000. Moderated multiple regression tests are criterion specific. Organizational Research Methods, 3: 254-266.
46. Langer E. J., 1989. Mindfulness. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
47. Lawrence P. R., Lorsch J. W., 1967. Differentiation and integration in complex organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 12: 1-47.
48. Lee G. K., Lieberman M. B., 2010. Acquisition vs. internal development as modes of market entry. Strategic Management Journal, 31: 140-158.
49. Levinthal D. A., March J. G., 1993. The myopia of learning. Strategic Management Journal, 14: 95-112.
50. Lewis K., 2003. Measuring transactive memory systems in the field: Scale development and validation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88: 587-604.
51. Lewis K., 2004. Knowledge and performance in knowledge-worker teams: A longitudinal study of transactive memory systems. Management Science, 50: 1519-1533.
52. Lewis K., Herndon B., 2011. Transactive memory systems: Current issues and future research directions. Organization Science, 22: 1254-1265.
53. Lewis K., Lange D., Gillis L., 2005. Transactive memory systems, learning, and learning transfer. Organization Science, 16: 581-598.
54. Li Y. H., Huang J. W., 2013. Exploitative and exploratory learning in transactive memory systems and project performance. Information & Management, 50: 304-313.
55. Lindell M. K., Whitney D. J., 2001. Accounting for common method variance in cross-sectional research designs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86: 114-121.
56. Lubatkin M. H., Simsek Z., Ling Y., Veiga J. F., 2006. Ambidexterity and performance in small- to medium-sized firms: The pivotal role of top management team behavioral integration. Journal of Management, 32: 646-672.
57. MacKenzie S. B., Podsakoff P. M., Fetter R., 1993. The impact of organizational citizenship behaviors on evaluations of sales performance. Journal of Marketing, 57: 70-80.
58. March J. G., 1991. Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organization Science, 2: 71-87.
59. Marks M. A., Mathieu J. E., Zaccaro S. J., 2001. A temporally based framework and taxonomy of team processes. Academy of Management Review, 26: 356-376.
60. Mell J. N., van Knippenberg D., van Ginkel W. P., in press. The catalyst effect: The impact of transactive memory system structure on team performance. Academy of Management Journal. doi:10.5465/amj.2012.0589
61. Miller D., 1991. Stale in the saddle: CEO tenure and the match between organization and environment. Management Science, 37: 34-52.
62. Miller K. D., Choi S., Pentland B. T., 2014. The role of transactive memory in the formation of organizational routines. Strategic Organization, 12: 109-133. doi:10.1177/1476127014521609
63. Miller K. D., Pentland B. T., Choi S., 2012. Dynamics of performing and remembering organizational routines. Journal of Management Studies, 49: 1536-1558.
64. Mishina Y., Pollock T. G., Porac J. F., 2004. Are more resources always better for growth? Resource stickiness in market and product expansion. Strategic Management Journal, 25: 1179-1197.
65. Mueller B. A., Titus V. K., Jr. Covin J. G., Slevin D. P., 2012. Pioneering orientation and firm growth: Knowing when and to what degree pioneering makes sense. Journal of Management, 38: 1517-1549.
66. Narayanan V. K., Zane L. J., Kemmerer B., 2011. The cognitive perspective in strategy: An integrative review. Journal of Management, 37: 305-351.
67. Neter J., Kutner M. H., Nachtsheim C. J., Wasserman W., 1996. Applied linear statistical models (4th ed.). Chicago: Irwin.
68. Nunnally J. C., Bernstein I. H., 1994. Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.
69. O’Reilly C. A., Tushman M. L., 2008. Ambidexterity as a dynamic capability: Resolving the innovator’s dilemma. In Staw B. M., Cummings L. L., (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, vol. 28: 185-206. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
70. Podsakoff P. M., MacKenzie S. B., Lee J. Y., Podsakoff N. P., 2003. Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88: 879-903.
71. Podsakoff P. M., Organ D. W., 1986. Self-reports in organizational research: Problems and prospects. Journal of Management, 12: 531-544.
72. Raisch S., Birkinshaw J., Probst G., Tushman M. L., 2009. Organizational ambidexterity: Balancing exploitation and exploration for sustained performance. Organization Science, 20: 685-695.
73. Rau D., 2005. The influence of relationship conflict and trust on the transactive memory: Performance relation in top management teams. Small Group Research, 36: 746-771.
74. Ren Y., Argote L., 2011. Transactive memory systems 1985–2010: An integrative framework of key dimensions, antecedents, and consequences. Academy of Management Annals, 5: 189-229.
75. Schulman P. R., 1993. The negotiated order of organizational reliability. Administration & Society, 25: 353-372.
76. Siegel P. A., Hambrick D. C., 1996. Business strategy and the social psychology of top management teams. In Dutton J., Baum J., (Eds.), Advances in strategic management, vol. 13: 91-119. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
77. Siemsen E., Roth A., Oliveira P., 2010. Common method bias in regression models with linear, quadratic, and interaction effects. Organizational Research Methods, 13: 456-476.
78. Simsek Z., Veiga J. F., Lubatkin M. H., Dino R. N., 2005. Modeling the multilevel determinants of top management team behavioral integration. Academy of Management Journal, 48: 69-84.
79. Smith W. K., Binns A., Tushman M. L., 2010. Complex business models: Managing strategic paradoxes simultaneously. Long Range Planning, 43: 448-461.
80. Smith W. K., Tushman M. L., 2005. Managing strategic contradictions: A top management model for managing innovation streams. Organization Science, 16: 522-536.
81. Sull D. N., 1999. The dynamics of standing still: Firestone Tire & Rubber and the radial revolution. Business History Review, 73: 430-464.
82. Tabachnick B. G., Fidell L. S., 1996. Using multivariate statistics (3rd ed.). New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.
83. Taylor A., Greve H. R., 2006. Superman or the Fantastic Four? Knowledge combination and experience in innovative teams. Academy of Management Journal, 49: 723-740.
84. Tiwana A., 2008. Does technological modularity substitute for control? A study of alliance performance in software outsourcing. Strategic Management Journal, 29: 769-780.
85. Tripsas M., Gavetti G., 2000. Capabilities, cognition, and inertia: Evidence from digital imaging. Strategic Management Journal, 21: 1147-1161.
86. Tushman M. L., O’ Reilly C. A., 1996. Ambidextrous organizations: Managing evolutionary and revolutionary change. California Management Review, 38: 8-30.
87. Tushman M., Romanelli E., 1985. Organizational evolution: A metamorphosis model of convergence and reorientation. In Cummings L. L., Staw B. M., (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, vol. 7: 171-222. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
88. Wegner D. M., 1987. Transactive memory: A contemporary analysis of the group mind. In Goethals B. M. G. R., (Ed.), Theories of group behavior: 185-208. New York: Springer-Verlag.
89. Wegner D. M., Erber R., Raymond P., 1991. Transactive memory in close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61: 923-929.
90. Weick K. E., Roberts K. H., 1993. Collective mind in organizations: Heedful interrelating on flight decks. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38: 357-381.
91. Weick K. E., Sutcliffe K. M., Obstfeld D., 1999. Organizing for high reliability: Processes of collective mindfulness. In Staw B. M., Cummings L. L., (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, vol. 21: 81-123. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
92. Williams K. Y., O’Reilly C. A., 1998. Demography and diversity in organizations: A review of 40 years of research. In Staw B. M., Cummings L. L., (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, vol. 20: 77-140. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
93. Zajac S., Gregory M. E., Bedwell W. L., Kramer W. S., Salas E., 2014. The cognitive underpinnings of adaptive team performance in ill-defined task situations: A closer look at team cognition. Organizational Psychology Review, 4: 49-73.
94. Zattoni A., Gnan L., Huse M., 2015. Does family involvement influence firm performance? Exploring the mediating effects of board processes and tasks. Journal of Management. 41: 1214-1243
95. Zenger T. R., Lawrence B. S., 1989. Organizational demography: The differential effects of age and tenure distributions on technical communication. Academy of Management Journal, 32: 353-376.