Joint Problem-Solving Orientation in Fluid Cross-Boundary Teams

Kerrissey et al · Team Learning, Voice & Silence · Academy of Management Discoveries · 2021 · Paywalled

Examined teams with low stability and shifting membership — groups that come together, disband, and reunite at punctuated intervals. Found two primary responses: delaying work to build relationships first, or diving immediately into joint problem-solving. Counter-intuitively, it was the latter that enhanced performance. Relationship-building was unhelpful when membership was constantly shifting. The paper has direct implications for contemporary remote and hybrid work: foundational assumptions about team stability — shared history, established norms, clear membership — may no longer hold, and the conditions enabling effective team learning need to be rethought accordingly.

Kerrissey, M.J., Mayo, A.T. and Edmondson, A.C. (2021) 'Joint problem-solving orientation in fluid cross-boundary teams', Academy of Management Discoveries, 7(3), pp. 381–405.

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