The Catalyst Effect: The Impact Of Transactive Memory System Structure On Group Performance
Julija N. Mell, Daan van Knippenberg, Wendy P. van Ginkel · Academy of Management Proceedings · 2012
Research on transactive memory systems implicitly assumes that metaknowledge, i.e. the knowledge of who knows what, is uniformly distributed among group members. Relaxing this assumption results in a more realistic notion of group cognition in which the distribution of metaknowledge can assume different forms. We zoom in on the aspect of evenness of metaknowledge distribution and compare groups with a centralized metaknowledge structure, i.e. groups in which a fairly complete understanding of who knows what is allocated to only one or few central members, with groups with a decentralized metaknowledge structure, i.e. groups in which metaknowledge is distributed evenly among the members. In line with our theoretical analysis, results of a group decision making experiment showed a catalyst effect: Groups with a centralized metaknowledge structure outperformed groups with a decentralized metaknowledge structure when confronted with a task that poses high coordination demands. Our results encourage to consider the structural aspect of transactive memory systems more closely in theoretical analysis and practical application.