Why Turnover Matters in Self-Managing Work Teams: Learning, Social Integration, and Task Flexibility

This study considers how turnover in self-managing work teams influences the team interaction processes that promote effective task accomplishment. Drawing from research on self-managing work teams and group process, the authors propose that team turnover affects performance in self-managing teams b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of management Vol. 36; no. 5; pp. 1168 - 1191
Main Authors van der Vegt, Gerben S., Bunderson, Stuart, Kuipers, Ben
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2010
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Behavior
Effectiveness
Flexibility
Group performance
Learning
Organization theory
Panel data
Self directed work teams
Selfmanagement programmes
Social integration
Studies
Teams
Teamwork
Turnover
social integration
team flexibility
team membership change
team learning
self-managing work teams
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Summary:This study considers how turnover in self-managing work teams influences the team interaction processes that promote effective task accomplishment. Drawing from research on self-managing work teams and group process, the authors propose that team turnover affects performance in self-managing teams by affecting social integration, team learning behavior, and task flexibility. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of 47 self-managing work teams using longitudinal panel data and an objective measure of team performance. Results suggest that team turnover indeed decreases social integration, team learning behavior, and task flexibility in self-managing teams but that only task flexibility and team learning behavior mediate the negative relationship between team turnover and team effectiveness.
ISSN:0149-2063
1557-1211
DOI:10.1177/0149206309344117