Does Member Familiarity Help or Hinder Innovation? The Roles of Expertise and Dialogic Coordination

TY - JOUR

T1 - Does Member Familiarity Help or Hinder Innovation? The Roles of Expertise and Dialogic Coordination

AU - Zaggl, Michael Andreas

AU - Majchrzak, Ann

AU - Gibbs, Jennifer

AU - Birnbaum-More, Phil

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Organizations increasingly rely on flexible work arrangements, such as innovation task forces and quickly assemble members with diverse expertise needed to create innovative solutions to problems. The literature has produced mixed findings on the relationship between member familiarity and innovation, which we suggest may be explained by two forms of coordination: expertise and dialogic. We hypothesize and find that dialogic coordination produces more innovative outcomes for unfamiliar task forces, while expertise coordination produces more innovative outcomes for familiar task forces. Furthermore, dialogic coordination in unfamiliar task forces is associated with greater innovative outcomes than expertise coordination in familiar task forces. Our results also highlight the importance of temporal dynamics of dialogic coordination in task force work. Hypotheses were tested through a longitudinal analysis of survey data with external ratings of the innovation outcome from 179 individuals in 32 innovation task forces from 13 U.S.-based firms in the top 10% of the world's growth industries during a period of recession. The findings contribute to an understanding of coordination in contemporary turbulent work environments.

AB - Organizations increasingly rely on flexible work arrangements, such as innovation task forces and quickly assemble members with diverse expertise needed to create innovative solutions to problems. The literature has produced mixed findings on the relationship between member familiarity and innovation, which we suggest may be explained by two forms of coordination: expertise and dialogic. We hypothesize and find that dialogic coordination produces more innovative outcomes for unfamiliar task forces, while expertise coordination produces more innovative outcomes for familiar task forces. Furthermore, dialogic coordination in unfamiliar task forces is associated with greater innovative outcomes than expertise coordination in familiar task forces. Our results also highlight the importance of temporal dynamics of dialogic coordination in task force work. Hypotheses were tested through a longitudinal analysis of survey data with external ratings of the innovation outcome from 179 individuals in 32 innovation task forces from 13 U.S.-based firms in the top 10% of the world's growth industries during a period of recession. The findings contribute to an understanding of coordination in contemporary turbulent work environments.

KW - Coordination

KW - cross-functional teams

KW - dynamic capabilities

KW - familiarity

KW - innovation task forces

KW - interdisciplinary teams

KW - multidisciplinary teams

U2 - 10.1109/TEM.2022.3224871

DO - 10.1109/TEM.2022.3224871

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0018-9391

VL - 71

SP - 4006

EP - 4021

JO - IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

JF - IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

ER -