The relationship between team performance and multiple team membership: the role of social networks and technology

In this paper we examine associations between team performance, the belongingness of team members to multiple project teams simultaneously, the use of collaborative technologies and work-place social networks (advice network support). In a sample of R&D teams, we proposed and found an inverted U-shaped relationship between multiple team membership (MTM) and team performance such that teams whose members are engaged simultaneously in few or many teams experience lower performance. Network support is a moderator of this relationship so that when MTM is low, network support has a positive effect and when MTM is high, network support has a negative effect. Finally the use of collaborative technologies, specifically instant messaging, moderates the relationship such that at low levels of MTM, teams whose members make an intense use of collaborative technologies attain higher performance while at high levels of MTM an intense use of collaborative technologies is associated with lower team performance.