Many teams, one better career? A study on the impact of MTM on individual career success

This study investigates individuals who experience Multiple Team Membership (MTM) with the aim to understand the interplay between MTM and careers. We gathered 6-years longitudinal data of employees working in multiple teams in a mid-sized IT consultancy company, and we investigate how the number of MTMs and its change over time affect employees’ career progression in particular. We highlight a complex relationship between the number of concurrent team memberships and career progression, a relationship that is also contingent on employees’ seniority. Our results suggest that, to increase their probability of career success, individuals need to experience low variability in the number of concurrent team memberships, especially when they are junior members of the organization. However, experiencing an increase in the number of concurrent teams over time is also beneficial for career progression. More broadly, our study contributes to the understanding of how complex organizational arrangements, such as those driven by MTM, affect individual career trajectories. Moreover, it contributes to the growing conversation on MTM, by introducing and investigating different dimensions of concurrent team memberships and their effects on individuals.