۱- Introduction

۲- The need for an integrative model of cross-boundary teaming

۳- Team development

۴- Knowledge diversity and team performance

۵- An integrative model of cross-boundary teaming

۶- Assessing cross-boundary teaming

۷- Implications of the model for HRM

۸- Conclusion

References

Abstract

Cross-boundary teaming, within and across organizations, is an increasingly popular strategy for innovation. Knowledge diversity is seen to expand the range of views and ideas that teams can draw upon to innovate. Yet, case studies reveal that teaming across knowledge boundaries can be difficult in practice, and innovation is not always realized. Two streams of research are particularly relevant for understanding the challenges inherent in cross-boundary teaming: research on team effectiveness and research on knowledge in organizations. They offer complementary insights: the former stream focuses on group dynamics and measures team inputs, processes, emergent states, and outcomes, while the latter closely investigates dialog and objects in recurrent social practices. Drawing from both streams, this paper seeks to shed light on the complexity of cross-boundary teaming, while highlighting factors that may enhance its effectiveness. We develop an integrative model to provide greater explanatory power than previous approaches to assess cross-boundary teaming efforts and their innovation performance.

Introduction

Cross-boundary teaming, within and across organizations, is an increasingly popular strategy for innovation. In a growing number of cases, teams span organizational boundaries, not just functional ones, to pursue innovation. For example, professionals from IT services giant Fujitsu worked with specialists from TechShop, a chain of makerspaces that provide individual customers access to professional equipment, software, and other materials, to develop the first ever mobile makerspace for schools and other community members (Edmondson & Harvey, 2016a). In the economic development context, specialists in agriculture, economics, finance, marketing, supply chain management and project management from Coca-Cola, the United States Agency for International Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the nonprofit organization TechnoServe teamed up on an ambitious project to improve Haitian mango farmers’ business practices and incomes (Edmondson & Harvey, 2016b). Meanwhile, individuals from several multinational corporations, local government agencies, and startups formed a consortium to develop a run-down Paris suburb into an ecologically and technologically “smart” neighborhood (Edmondson, Moingeon, Bai, & Harvey, 2016). In each of these cases of innovation, individual participants had to work across knowledge boundaries – boundaries associated with differences in expertise and organization in novel settings. They had joined a newly formed temporary group, with fluid membership, which needed to develop rapidly into a high-performing unit to take on an unfamiliar project.