Policy Seminars
Speaker: Bradley Staats |
HBS |
Topic: Hierarchy, Team Familiarity, and Capability Development: Evidence from Indian Software Services |
Date/Place/Time: Friday, January 9, 2009 1:30PM - 3:00PM UCLA Anderson School C303 |
Abstract: What is the source of organizational capabilities? This paper examines one potential source bringing together conceptual streams from strategy and organizational theory on the determinants of learning to examine how team familiarity (i.e., previous shared work experience) influences the development and effectiveness of organizational capabilities. I explore the separate effects of hierarchical team familiarity (a manager’s experience with front-line team members) and horizontal team familiarity (front-line team members’ experience with one another) on team performance. I also consider whether these distinct measures of team familiarity moderate the relationship between project complexity and team performance. Using data on all software development projects completed over a three-year period at a large Indian firm in the global outsourced software services industry, I find that hierarchical team familiarity is positively related to a project’s being on budget and on schedule, while horizontal team familiarity is positively related to the quality of a project’s overall performance. With respect to budget and schedule performance, I also show that hierarchical team familiarity moderates the impact on performance of a project’s complexity. This study’s empirical analysis demonstrates that organizational capabilities grow through the development and strengthening of ties between organizational actors. |
Link to paper (if available): Click here for paper |