Colleagues That Work Together, Move Together: How Pre-Existing Relationships Between New Team Members Affect Individual and Team Performance

Authors:

Abstract: Changes in team membership are both disruptive and increasingly common. With employees becoming more mobile, it is likely that colleagues from the same team may transition to a new team together. Drawing upon theories regarding transactive memory systems (TMS), we have developed a multilevel and multi-period model to assess the impact of these pre-existing relationships on individual and team performance. To test our model, we conducted three studies: two archival studies (one from the National Basketball Association and another from Major League Baseball) and an in-person laboratory study involving teams. The results indicate that, at the individual level, pre-existing relationships support the performance of new members. This effect is driven by information sharing and TMS within the moving dyads. Conversely, at the team level, the presence of pre-existing relationships among new members hampers performance. We also observed that these effects vary between basketball and baseball, suggesting that interdependence serves as a key boundary condition for outcomes related to pre-existing relationships. Finally, we found that the detrimental effects of pre-existing relationships within teams diminish after a year. In summary, our findings suggest a multilevel performance tradeoff between hiring new employees with and without pre-existing relationships.

Track: TEAM

Keywords: teams, groups, change