New product development in turbulent environments: Impact of improvisation and unlearning on new product performance

Team learning is vital for organizations in order to compete in fast-paced environments. However, the ways learning can be effective in such environments warrents research, especially for teams developing new products under rapidly changing technological and market conditions. Interestingly, recent new product development (NPD) literature demonstrates the essential role of improvisation (i.e., planning and executing any action simultaneously) and unlearning (i.e., changes in team beliefs and project routines) for effective learning and performing under turbulent conditions. However, the combined effect of team improvisation and unlearning on new product success (NPS) has largely been ignored. This paper investigates the nomological relations among team improvisation and unlearning, new product success, and environmental turbulence, and contributes to the literature on NPD team learning, and on team flexibility under turbulent conditions. By examining 197 new product-development projects, we found that (1) environmental turbulence positively affects team unlearning, (2) team unlearning concurrently stimulates team improvisation, (3) team improvisation positively impacts new product success by utilizing/implementing new knowledge acquired by unlearning and improvisation. We further discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our conclusions.     

Improvisation and Innovation in Teams: The Jazz Effect

While numerous models examine the linkages between improvisation and innovation, the factors that moderate this relationship at the team level are unknown. Consequently, this study builds on principles and insights from the jazz jam session framework used by jazz musicians and regression analysis to examine the nature of the improvisation process and consider how it affects innovation. By using unbalanced panel data on 2,749 teams containing between two and eight employees in the United Kingdom during 2002–2016, this study demonstrates that the success of the improvisation process relies on both internal and external factors conducive to innovation. Subsequently, the conclusions drawn may help entrepreneurs and team managers think differently about the role improvisation plays in the innovation activity. As a result, important practical implications are drawn for team managers and entrepreneurs intending to cultivate a willingness to improvise in teams and nurture collaborative relationships with external partners for innovation.     

Organizational Improvisation: A Consolidating Review and Framework

Organizational improvisation is increasingly recognized as a relevant area of management research. However, the cumulativeness of research on improvisation in organizations remains low. This paper organizes existing contributions on organizational improvisation within a new consolidating framework combining degrees (minor, bounded and structural) and levels (individual, interpersonal and organizational) of improvisation. The proposed degree/level framework allows for reviewing the existing literature on organizational improvisation in the management disciplines of strategy, organizational behaviour, organizational theory, innovation and marketing in a systematic manner. It also exposes potential areas for future research across management disciplines, research areas, organizational settings and industries, and beyond existing metaphors, most notably of jazz and improvisational theatre.     

LMX差异化对创造力的影响:一项多层次研究

领导—成员交换关系的差异化是近年来学术界的一个热点课题.尽管已有研究考察了它对一些个体和团队产出的影响,但领导—成员交换关系差异化对创造力的影响一直为研究者们所忽略.领导—成员交换关系差异化文献和社会比较理论表明领导与不同下属交换质量的差异对团队及个人创造力的发挥具有重要意义.基于此,本研究采用社会比较的理论视角,同时从个体和团队两个层面考察领导—成员交换关系差异化对团队和个体创造力的影响,并进一步分析团队层面的差异化对个体层面效应的调节作用.通过对中国大陆80个知识型团队的367名个体的问卷调查,结果发现:在个体层面,相对的领导—成员交换关系(RLMX)对个体创造力有显著正向影响,团队自主支持感在这两者关系中起着中介作用;在团队层面,领导—成员交换关系差异和团队创造力之间呈U型关系,领导—成员交换关系差异对个体创造力有消极影响,但团队层面的关系差异化对RLMX和个体创造力关系的调节效应不显著.总体来看,本研究发现LMX差异化对个体层面和团队层面的影响是不一致的.最后讨论了本研究的不足及未来潜在的研究方向.     

团队成员创新行为的两层影响因素:个人目标取向与团队创新气氛

当代企业的发展越来越依赖于创新型员工与创新型团队,影响个人创新行为的主要因素一直是研究者关注的热点.本文根据目标取向理论的相关研究结论,将团队创新气氛因素纳入到目标取向对团队成员创新行为影响的研究中.通过对70个团队(包含352个团队成员)样本的调查,运用分层线性模型分析技术,对个人层次目标取向与团队层次创新气氛时创新行为的主效应与交互效应进行了分析.结果表明:团队成员学习目标取向对其创新行为具有显著正向影响,且这种正向效应不会受到团队创新气氛的调节作用;成员证明目标取向对其创新行为的正向影响不显著,但团队创新气氛可以显著调节(增强)这种正向效应;成员回避目标取向对其创新行为具有显著负向影响,但团队创新气氛可以显著调节(减弱)这种负向效应.最后讨论了本研究的管理启示、研究局限及研究展望.     

Toward a Systems Theory of Motivated Behavior in Work Teams

Work motivation theories and research have tended to focus either on individual motivation, ignoring contextual influences of team processes on individuals, or on team motivation, ignoring individual differences within the team. Redressing these limited, single-level views of motivation, we delineate a theoretical multilevel model of motivated behavior in teams. First, we conceptualize motivational processes at both the individual and team levels, highlighting the functional similarities in these processes across levels of analysis. We then delineate a set of theoretical propositions regarding the cross-level interplay between individual and team motivation, and antecedents and outcomes of individual and team motivation. Finally, we discuss the implications of our theoretical model for future research and managerial practices.     

A meta-analysis of humble leadership: Reviewing individual,team, and organizational outcomes of leader humility

Humility is a concept grounded in a self-view that something greater than oneself exists. A multitude of disciplines to date have sought to understand how humility impacts leaders, as well as the individuals, teams, and organizations they lead. Despite overlapping research questions, methodologies, and empirical contexts, studies examining leader humility have developed largely in isolation with little overlap between fields. This has created a fundamental divide between micro and macro researchers who suggest that humility is conceptualized as both a mutable behavioral state and a stable leader trait, respectively. We provide a systematic review of research on leader humility at multiple organizational levels of analysis to provide linkages across disciplinary and theoretical divides. We couple our systematic review with a meta-analysis of 212 unique studies, identifying 99 estimates for the relationships between leader humility and numerous individual, team, and organizational variables. Among all variables, we find humble leadership most strongly predicts followers’ satisfaction with the leader and the leaders’ participative decision making. We also find humble leadership does not affect their own job performance or the performance of organizations, but improves the performance of their followers and teams. Building on our results, we call for research across academic disciplines.     

Antecedents and effects of individual ambidexterity – A cross-level investigation of exploration and exploitation activities at the employee level

For long-term success, companies need to adapt to technological and environmental change. Organizational ambidexterity, which balances the exploration of new opportunities with the exploitation of existing capabilities, is increasingly viewed as a promising approach to tackle this challenge. However, despite the important role of individuals for firms' ambidexterity and performance, evidence on how exploration of new opportunities and exploitation of existing capabilities are triggered at an individual level and on their subsequent effects on overall performance is still lacking. Accordingly, the present research shifts the focus from organizational ambidexterity to individual ambidexterity. Based on data from 415 employees, the results of structural equation modeling show that both organizational architecture and organizational context can be used to induce individual ambidexterity. Furthermore, positive performance effects of individual ambidexterity across different organizational levels, namely the team and department levels, are confirmed.     

团队成员目标取向与建言行为的关系:一个跨层分析

研究以国内某大型企业集团27个营销团队共201名团队成员为研究对象,采用多水平研究方法,通过构建多层数据模型(HLM),以自我激励和个体-情景互动理论为框架对团队成员个体目标导向、团队氛围和员工建言行为的关系进行了探讨.研究发现目标导向不同的个体,其建言行为也有差异,相对于发展导向,表现导向的个体更多地卷入建言行为.团队心理安全感不仅对员工建言行为有直接显著影响,而且在个体目标导向(表现导向)与建言行为的关系中有正向的跨层调节效应:团队心理安全感越高,表现导向的个体越倾向于建言行为,团队心理安全感越低,表现导向与建言行为的关系越不明显.团队氛围对于其他目标导向与建言行为关系的跨层调节效果不显著.     

项目团队成员怠工行为修正的理论模型

项目团队并不总能实现预期目标,项目团队中存在的某些问题属于怠工行为的表现,项目团队中怠工行为修正亟待研究。采用定性研究方法,按照行为修正分析模式,以行为修正理论、态度改变理论、态度与行为理论、认知平衡理论等为理论基础,经理论与文献研究提出:项目团队成员怠工行为与项目团队绩效的关系、工作态度在工作情境认知与怠工行为之间中介作用关系、团队文化认知在工作情境认知与工作态度之间调节作用关系,从而构建起项目团队成员怠工行为修正的理论模型。     

Understanding the Antecedents of Effective Knowledge Management: The Importance of a Knowledge‐Centered Culture*

Within the context of knowledge management, little research has been conducted that identifies the antecedents of a knowledge‐centered culture—those organizational qualities that encourage knowledge creation and dissemination. In this study, the existing literature on organizational climate, job characteristics, and organizational learning (in the form of cooperative learning theory) are linked with the current thinking and research findings related to knowledge management to develop a theoretical model explaining the relationships among organizational climate, the level of cooperative learning that takes place between knowledge workers, and the resulting level of knowledge created and disseminated as measured by team performance and individual satisfaction levels. The study goes on to empirically test the proposed research model by investigating the climate of organizations, and seeks to understand the linkage between a set of organizational and individual characteristics and knowledge‐related activities found in cooperative learning groups and the resulting work outcomes. The hypothesized research model is tested using LISREL with data collected from 203 information systems (IS) professionals engaged in systems development activities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications the results have for future research and managerial practice.     

The dysfunctions of power in teams: A review and emergent conflict perspective

We review the new and growing body of work on power in teams and use this review to develop an emergent theory of how power impacts team outcomes. Our paper offers three primary contributions. First, our review highlights potentially incorrect assumptions that have arisen around the topic of power in teams and documents the areas and findings that appear most robust in explaining the effects of power on teams. Second, we contrast the findings of this review with what is known about the effects of power on individuals and highlight the directionally oppositional effects of power that emerge across different levels of analysis. Third, we integrate findings across levels of analysis into an emergent theory which explains why and when the benefits of power for individuals may paradoxically explain the potentially negative effects of power on team outcomes. We elaborate on how individual social comparisons within teams where at least one member has power increase intra-team power sensitivity, which we define as a state in which team members are excessively perceptive of, affected by, and responsive to resources. We theorize that when power-sensitized teams experience resource threats (either stemming from external threats or personal threats within the team), these threats will ignite internal power sensitivities and set into play performance-detracting intra-team power struggles. This conflict account of power in teams integrates and organizes past findings in this area to explain why and when power negatively affects team-level outcomes, and opens the door for future research to better understand why and when power may benefit team outcomes when power’s dark side for teams is removed.     

Managing Nationality Diversity: The Interactive Effect of Leaders’ Cultural Intelligence and Task Interdependence

In light of the workforce's increasing nationality diversity, our study explores the antecedents for the successful management of nationality diversity as visualized in a favourable diversity climate and enhanced team performance. We propose a double‐contingency model in which we argue that the effects of nationality diversity will be dependent upon task interdependence and leaders’ cultural intelligence. We propose that nationality diversity will be more consequential in more interdependent teams, in which team interactions and processes are more salient. Moreover, team leaders with higher cultural intelligence will possess the skills to foster adequate team processes and thereby enhance diversity climate and performance of nationally diverse, more interdependent teams. We collected multi‐source data from 63 work teams (N = 410) and their supervisors at a German facility management company. Moderated regression analyses supported the hypothesized three‐way interaction between nationality diversity, task interdependence and leaders’ cultural intelligence. Additional simple slope analysis showed that nationality diversity is positively related to diversity climate and performance only when both team leaders’ cultural intelligence and task interdependence are high. Our study not only provides recommendations for successful nationality diversity management but also yields theoretical implications for diversity and cultural intelligence research.     

LETTING DOWN THE TEAM? SOCIAL EFFECTS OF TEAM INCENTIVES

This paper estimates social effects of incentivizing people in teams. In three field experiments featuring exogenous team formation and opportunities for repeated social interactions, we find large team effects that operate through social channels. In particular, assignment to a team treatment increases productivity by 9%–17% relative to an individual incentive treatment, even though the individual incentive yields a higher private return. Further, we find that in a choice treatment individuals overwhelmingly prefer the individual incentive to the team incentive, despite the latter being more effective. These results are most consistent with the team effects operating through guilt or social pressure as opposed to pure altruism.     

Biospheric values as predictor of climate change risk perception: A multinational investigation

Climate change is one of the big challenges of our time. A better understanding of how individuals form their evaluation of the risk related to climate change seems to be key to win broad support for climate change mitigation efforts. Extant research indicates that biospheric values (BV) are an important antecedent of individuals’ perception of the risk and consequences related to climate change. However, risk perception scholars have only recently started to study how BV relate to individuals’ climate change risk perception (CCRP) and much is still to be learned about this relationship. The present study contributes to this growing literature by studying the BV–CCRP relationship in a multinational context. The results suggest that the BV – CCRP relationship varies in strength between different countries. These differences can be explained in part by societies’ cultural leanings (i.e., individualism vs. collectivism) and societies’ wealth. The present research adds to our understanding of why individuals in different countries perceive climate change related risk differently and how this perception is shaped differently by biospheric values in different countries. In this way, the findings help to build a more nuanced theory of how CCRP are formed. The presented results also have implications for policymakers and NGOs who wish to increase individuals’ engagement with climate change and its consequences in different populations. In particular, the findings suggests that it might be necessary to use different strategies in different societies to achieve a greater awareness of climate change related risks.     

基于无标度网络的绿色出行选择行为研究

随着我国城市化进程的加快，机动车污染已成为我国城市空气污染的一个主要来源，提倡绿色出行的理念有助于缓解机动车尾气带来的空气污染，那么对于有限理性个体在复杂社交网络中的绿色出行行为意愿的研究以及群体行为的演化则成为了本文的研究焦点。本文基于计划行为理论等建立了基于个体行为态度、感知行为控制、主观规范及行为结果感知等影响因素的个体绿色出行行为意愿模型，运用观点传播动力学及无标度网络构建了个体选择行为交互网络模型。实证及仿真分析表明，个体行为态度因素在居民的绿色出行行为意愿中取值很高，作用显著，行为感知因素则影响较为有限，提高行为结果感知因素与主观规范因素的取值是提高居民绿色出行行为意愿的主要途径；在择优连接原则与网络增长假设条件下，整个网络向着几个中心节点聚集的趋势越来越明显，即网络节点中心化的程度越来越显著；在社会网络中，提高行为主体的信息交互阈值取值、增加行为主体绿色出行交通费用的折扣系数、提升民众采取绿色出行方式时的精神满足感、塑造宣传绿色出行的意见领袖将有利于提高居民的绿色出行行为意愿。     

A framework for understanding collective leadership: The selective utilization of leader and team expertise within networks

To date, the dominant approach to leadership research assumes that all aspects of the leadership role within a team are embodied by a single individual. In the real world, however, this is rarely the case. Rather, multiple individuals within the team may serve as leaders in both formal and informal capacities, and the shifting of leadership responsibilities is often rooted in which individual's expertise is most relevant to the given problem. In the present effort, we add to the rapidly growing body of work that focuses on the distribution of the leadership role among multiple individuals. We have reviewed relevant extant literature and proposed an integrated framework for understanding the collective leadership process. Also, in developing this framework we have taken an information and expertise-based approach such that we propose that collective leadership, or the distribution of the leadership role, is a function of selectively utilizing the information or specialized expertise that individuals within the network possess. In reviewing the framework, 55 propositions with regard to the collective leadership process are outlined and suggestions for future research are provided.     

The Politicization of Risk: Party Cues,Polarization, and Public Perceptions of Climate Change Risk

Previous research shows that public perceptions of climate change risk are strongly related to the individual willingness to support climate mitigation and adaptation policy. In this article, I investigate how public perceptions of climate change risk are affected by communications from political parties and the degree of polarization among them. Specifically, using survey data from Sweden, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand, I study the relationship between party source cues, perceived polarization, and public perceptions of climate change risk. The results reveal a positive relationship between party cues and perceptions of climate change risk, indicating that individuals adjust their risk perceptions to align with their party preference. Furthermore, a negative relationship between perceived polarization and individual risk perceptions is also discovered, showing that individuals tend to be less concerned with climate change the more polarization they perceive. However, the effect of perceived polarization is found to be limited to more abstract perceptions of risk, while being unrelated to perceptions of concrete risks. Even with some contextual variance, the results generally hold up well across the four countries.     

创业者个体学习、组织学习如何交互影响企业创新行为？——基于整合视角的纵向单案例研究

社会经济的不断发展促使分工愈发精细,对个人与组织间的技术隔离也愈加明显,亟待创业者个体及组织开展跨层次的交互学习以构建组织创新优势。基于此,本文援引学习理论与意义构建视角,从"行动"与"解释"出发,采用纵向单案例研究方法,基于"个体-组织"整合性分析框架,探究了不同创业阶段内跨层次行动主体间的学习互动模型,揭示了其对企业创新的影响路径。研究发现:创业者个体学习与组织学习间的互动,表现为渐变初期个体利用式学习经"自上而下"团队互动主导形成组织单环式行动;而在调整转变期,个体学习与组织学习发生交互影响,包含个体探索式学习经"横向协同式"团队互动主导形成组织双环式行动,以及组织双环式行动转换为单环式之后,经由持续反思与质询,刺激形成创业者个体利用式学习;最后,在发展突变期,个体利用式学习经"制度化统筹式"团队交互合作促成组织单环式行动,同时个体探索式学习经"跨越层次自主式"团队交互激活组织双环式学习。此外,在不同创业阶段,3种互动逻辑与意义构建框架下的创新决定机制呈现出以个体创意激发与扩散、信息整合与匹配以及平衡矛盾与冲突3种不同的影响路径展开的态势。本研究为创业学习理论和创业实践过程贡献了新的启示。