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Multiple team membership (MTM) is a complex phenomenon that poses significant challenges for organizational research and practice. In this article, we delve into the multilevel nature of MTM, which has not received adequate research attention to date. We develop a resource-based framework that advances our understanding of the antecedents and productivity consequences of firm MTM, and the synergistic effects of individual MTM and firm MTM on an individual's emotional exhaustion. Using a sample of 19,803 employees from 145 German organizations, our analyses reveal that MTM is most prevalent in knowledge-intensive and understaffed firms, and that firm MTM has an inverted U-shaped (rather than a positive linear) relationship with subsequent firm productivity. In addition, we find that individual MTM and firm MTM interactively shape individual stress perceptions, such that positive linkages between individual MTM and emotional exhaustion are significant only in firms with higher (but not lower) firm MTM. Together, these findings suggest that MTM has the potential to lead to firm-level productivity gains but, at the same time, may take a toll on individual employees' well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Individuals in contemporary work organizations are often involved in multiple teams at the same time. This study uses a social capital perspective to propose that employees' multiple team memberships (MTM) offer the potential for individual performance benefitsanddetriments, depending on the characteristics of an employee's information-sharing network. To test our predictions, we gathered both archival and survey data at an organization for applied research in the Netherlands. We found that individual MTM was indirectly associated with an employee's overall job performance by increasing the size of his or her information-sharing network. As expected, however, this indirect relationship was contingent on the average strength of an employee's network ties (i.e., the frequency of the respective interactions), such that MTM only improved overall performance when network ties were relatively weak. The indirect relationship between MTM and individual job performance was negative, by contrast, when an employee's network ties were relatively strong. Together, these findings advance our understanding of the mechanisms and contingency factors that shape the performance consequences associated with individuals' concurrent membership in multiple teams. Practitioner pointsAn employee's membership in multiple teams at the same time increases the size of his or her information-sharing network within the organization. The performance consequences associated with this increased information-sharing network hinge on the characteristics of an employee's information-sharing network. If the respective information-sharing linkages are based on relatively infrequent interactions with colleagues, an employee's multiple team membership indirectly benefits his or her overall job performance. If the respective information-sharing linkages are based on relatively frequent and intense interactions with colleagues, however, an employee's multiple team membership indirectly diminishes his or her overall job performance.

Relationships with leaders do not happen in isolation from the relationships one has with one’s peers. Therefore, we examine the influence of leader‒member exchange on follower job performance in light of the larger social networks in which followers are embedded. Testing multilevel models with data that were gathered using questionnaires from a sample of 240 nurses and 20 supervisors working at four Dutch hospitals revealed that a positive relationship exists between leader‒member exchange and follower job performance when follower workflow network centrality and/or follower friendship network centrality are high but not when they are both low. The results of this study show how the different follower relationships with the supervisor and colleagues intertwine in explaining follower job performance and suggest that the larger network in which followers are embedded within their work teams is important for explaining variations in the results regarding the relationship between leader‒member exchange and follower job performance. Our study indicates that leaders should have an eye for the network position of their followers when developing high quality leader‒member exchange relationships. For followers, a good relationship with their leader is important, but its value depends on their relationships with colleagues.

Many employees in modern, knowledge-based organizations are concurrently involved in more than one team at the same time. This study investigated whether a within-person change in such individual multiple team membership (MTM) may precede and may be predicted by changes in an employee's overall job performance. We examined this reciprocal relationship using longitudinal archival data from a large knowledge-intensive organization, comprising 1,875 employees and spanning 5 consecutive years. A latent change score model demonstrated that an increase in an employee's MTM was associated with a subsequent decrease in his or her overall job performance evaluations. By contrast, an increase in job performance was associated with a subsequent increase in an employee's MTM. Moreover, our results indicated that although an increase in an individual employee's MTM initially decreases his or her job performance, in the long run, this increase in MTM was associated with higher job performance. Together, these results suggest a dynamic association between an individual employee's MTM and his or her overall job performance, such that these variables are mutually connected in a highly complex manner over time.

Many employees in today’s organizations are concurrently involved in more than one team at the same time. This study investigates the individual-level relationships between such multiple team memberships (MTM) and employees’ wellbeing and job performance. Building on the challenge-hindrance stressor framework and research on socialization processes in organizations, we hypothesize that employees may appraise their MTMs as a challenge or a hindrance, depending on their work experience. We examined our predictions with multi-source data from a large organization in applied research (N = 1211). Results confirmed that less experienced multi-teamers were less likely to appraise MTM as a challenge and more likely as a hindrance, resulting in higher absenteeism and lower performance levels. MTM was unrelated to absenteeism and performance for more experienced employees. These findings provide important insights into the mechanisms and contingency factors that shape the wide-ranging consequences of MTM for individual employees.