When Do Teams Communicate More Asynchronously to Support Their Members’ Multiteaming?

Abstract

Knowledge-based teams that work on challenging tasks typically have members who are involved in multiple concurrent teams. These teams commonly use technologies to communicate, yet research largely studied multiple team membership (MTM) and team virtual exchanges independently whereas, in reality, they are coupled. Some scholars, however, have advised such teams to leverage technologies for asynchronous work to facilitate their members’ multiteaming. Using adaptive structuration theory as an overarching lens, we develop a model to address this advice and understand when and with which effect teams organize their work more asynchronously in response to their members’ multiteaming. Findings from 176 student teams show that when MTM teamwork demands are higher, MTM number is positively related to team asynchronous communication, which in turn is negatively associated with team creativity via information elaboration. Our research presents team asynchronicity as both a more common and more costly remedy for multiteaming.