The dynamic relationship between multiple team membership and individual job performance in knowledge‐intensive work

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2260
• Date: 01 November 2018
• Published date: 01 November 2018

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

The dynamic relationship between multiple team membership

and individual job performance in knowledge‐intensive work

Hendrik J. van de Brake

1

|Frank Walter

2

|Floor A. Rink

1

|Peter J. M. D. Essens

1

|

Gerben S. van der Vegt

1

1

Faculty of Economics and Business,

University of Groningen, Groningen, the

Netherlands

2

Faculty of Economics and Business Studies,

Justus‐Liebig‐University Giessen, Giessen,

Germany

Correspondence

Hendrik Johan van de Brake, Department of

Human Resource Management and

Organizational Behavior, University of

Groningen, Nettelbosje 2, 9747 AE,

Groningen, the Netherlands.

Email: h.j.van.de.brake@rug.nl

Summary

Many employees in modern, knowledge‐based organizations are concurrently involved in more

than one team at the same time. This study investigated whether a within‐person change in such

individual multiple team membership (MTM) may precede and may be predicted by changes in

an employee's overall job performance. We examined this reciprocal relationship using longitudinal

archival data from a large knowledge‐intensive organization, comprising 1,875 employees and

spanning 5 consecutive years. A latent change score model demonstrated that an increase in an

employee's MTM was associated with a subsequent decrease in his or her overall job

performance evaluations. By contrast, an increase in job performance was associated with a

subsequent increase in an employee's MTM. Moreover, our results indicated that although an

increase in an individual employee's MTMinitially decreases his or her job performance, in the long

run, this increase in MTM was associated with higher job performance. Together, these results sug-

gest a dynamic association between an individual employee's MTM and his or her overall job per-

formance, such that these variables are mutually connected in a highly complex manner over time.

KEYWORDS

dynamic relationships, job performance,latent change score modeling, multiple teammembership,

within‐personrelationships

1|INTRODUCTION

In an attempt to use scarce human resources as effectively and effi-

ciently as possible, knowledge‐based organizations increasingly rely

on flexible project teams in which memberships are frequently shared,

shifted, and dissolved (Mortensen, 2014). Within such contexts, many

individuals work on more than one project at the same time (O'Leary,

Mortensen, & Woolley, 2011), enabling various teams to concurrently

benefit from their expertise. For example, individual research and

development employees often work simultaneously on several project

teams, with each team utilizing their specific knowledge and contribu-

tions (Bertolotti, Mattarelli, Vignoli, & Macrì, 2015). Similarly, many

academics are concurrently involved in multiple research and teaching

teams. Scholars have estimated that such multiple team membership

(MTM) occurs among at least 65% of employees across a wide range

of occupations (Mortensen, Woolley, & O'Leary, 2007; O'Leary,

Mortensen, et al., 2011).

As a result of this development, there is growing scholarly interest

in the consequences of MTM (Wageman, Gardner, & Mortensen,

2012). Much of this research has focused on the team level of analysis,

illustrating for example that members' simultaneous involvement in

various other teams may shape a focal team's performance outcomes

(e.g., Bertolotti et al., 2015; Cummings & Haas, 2012). Importantly,

however, multi‐teaming may also distinctly influence individual

employees' work experiences and behaviors (Mortensen et al., 2007).

Compared with more traditional contexts with clearly defined and

delimited team memberships, individuals may face unique opportuni-

ties and challenges from their involvement in multiple organizational

teams (i.e., individual MTM; O'Leary, Mortensen, et al., 2011). Beyond

team‐level performance implications, it therefore seems critical to

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided

the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Authors Journal of Organizational Behavior Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Received: 29 September 2016 Revised: 8 December 2017 Accepted: 11 December 2017

DOI: 10.1002/job.2260

J Organ Behav. 2018;39:1219–1231. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job 1219