An Integrative Model of the Role of Structural, Behavioural, and Cognitive Coordination in Intergroup Effectiveness: How Middle Managers Play a Role
整合三种协调机制(结构、行为、认知),研究它们如何共同影响跨团队效能,并发现中层管理者的边界跨越行为能替代结构协调,且行为与认知协调相互增强。
Abstract Coordinating interdependent teams' effective performance of joint tasks presents serious challenges to organizations and their middle managers. But an integrative theoretical understanding of how to coordinate such intergroup effectiveness and what role middle managers play is missing. Consolidating three separate literatures, we develop an integrative framework of the role of and interactions between structural, behavioural, and cognitive coordination in intergroup effectiveness. We propose that behavioural coordination through middle manager boundary spanning and cognitive coordination through intergroup strategic consensus (shared understanding of strategy between teams) can substitute for structural coordination (i.e., when teams do not share division membership). Moreover, we hypothesize that behavioural coordination and cognitive coordination strengthen each other in improving intergroup effectiveness. Multisource data on 188 intergroup dyads support our predictions. Our integrative framework elucidates how these coordination mechanisms combine in driving intergroup effectiveness and suggests that middle managers and their boundary spanning have a critical role in modern team‐based organizations.