Backstage Matters: Collective Energy and Information-Sharing on Global Teams
通过研究中美两国子团队的后台互动，发现后台的集体能量会增强或削弱全球团队的信息共享，揭示了前后台动态的相互影响。
It is well documented that information-sharing—which is central to team effectiveness—is complicated by cultural and geographical factors. However, little is known about the process of information-sharing between subgroups within global teams. Building on Goffman’s (1959) notions of frontstage—for all the world to see—and backstage—for only you (or your subgroup) to see, we explore how backstage (intragroup) dynamics affect frontstage (intergroup or global team) dynamics. In a concurrent ethnographic study of two global teams, each with subgroups in both the United States and China, we discover that it is not only what was shared with the global team that matters, but also what was shared not on the frontstage but only on the backstage. Backstage dynamics may undermine—but also, in some cases, improve—global team information-sharing, based on the collective energy that emerges among colocated subgroup members. We document the self-reinforcing relationship that exists between collective energy shared among sub-team members in the backstage and the information shared among the entire global team on the frontstage. Our findings have both theoretical and practical implications for the study of global teams, intergroup dynamics more generally, and the future of work.