Constructing the Team: Inter-Member Compositional Disagreement and its Effects on Team Dynamics and Performance

Abstract

The organizational team is ubiquitous and membership therein has far-reaching effects on cognition, dynamics, processes, and performance. Typically considered straightforward and unambiguous, in this study I suggest that team members’ models of team membership are socially-constructed and – due to organizations’ reliance on short-term, fluid, and partially overlapping teams – increasingly disagreed upon. In a study of 38 formally-defined software and product development teams, I identify structural and emergent drivers of inter-member “compositional disagreement” and its effects on team dynamics and outcomes. I compare the effects of inter-member and member-manager compositional disagreement and discuss the implications of compositional disagreement for theory, methods and management practice.