Taking a deeper look inside autonomous and interdependent teams: why, how, and when does informational dissimilarity elicit dysfunctional versus beneficial effects

ABSTRACT Organizations increasingly use cross-functional teams, characterized by autonomy and interdependence, to improve innovation and to adapt to a dynamic business environment. Based on this trend, prior research started to investigate informational dissimilarity (employee’s dissimilarity relative to teammates regarding education, job specialization, and expertise) in teams. Two key team outcomes are 1) team members’ satisfaction with the team and 2) the team’s proactivity. Paradoxically, some researchers reported dysfunctional informational dissimilarity effects on employee outcomes, while some reported beneficial effects. To integrate opposing informational dissimilarity effects, we apply the categorization-elaboration model of team diversity. We theorize that perceived informational dissimilarity can elicit simultaneously dysfunctional effects on satisfaction with the team and beneficial effects on the team member’s proactivity. We specify the mechanisms of both effects by investigating the mediating roles of peer unfairness (representing dysfunctional informational dissimilarity effects) and information elaboration (representing beneficial informational dissimilarity effects). To reconcile these contradicting processes, we analyse the role of trust. We conducted a survey study at three different measurement time points with team members from different organizations. The results indicate that trust in teammates dampens dysfunctional informational dissimilarity effects and amplifies beneficial effects.

• Publication year

  2020

• Venue

  European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology

• Publication date

  2020-05-18

• Fields of study

  Business, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1080/1359432x.2020.1763957
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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