Managing Task Interdependencies in Multi-Team Projects: A Longitudinal Study.

Hoegl, Martin; Weinkauf, Katharina

In this article we examine project-level and team-level managerial functions aimed at managing inter-team task interdependencies and investigate their effect on the performance of teams in a multi-team product development project. We hypothesize that team interface management (a team-level function) performed in the concept phase of a project, rather than the later development phase, is positively related to team performance at the project's conclusion (i.e. product quality, product cost, development budget, development time). Furthermore, we argue that project structuring and support (a project-level function) is important in both the concept and the development phases. We test our hypotheses empirically based on a 36 months longitudinal study of a product development project in the European automotive industry comprising 39 teams. The results show that team interface management is particularly important during the concept phase of the project. Project structuring and support is most important in the development phase of the project, while hindering team performance in the concept phase. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

PROJECT management; RESEARCH on teams in the workplace; INTERGROUP relations; NEW product development; ORGANIZATIONAL effectiveness; MANAGEMENT; RAPID prototyping; COMPLEX organizations; ORGANIZATIONAL sociology; WORK structure; TASK analysis; AUTOMOBILE industry research

Journal of Management Studies (Wiley-Blackwell), 2005, Vol 42, Issue 6, p1287

0022-2380

Academic Journal

10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00542.x