Theoretical Construction Of Sturcture And Process Of Team Transactive Memory System

In the knowledge economy era,the key issue for enterprises to get sustainable competitive advantage is to acquire,integrate and create knowledge.Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourself,or we know where we can find information upon it.We know where we can find information upon it,and we can find the subject itself.For example,if the wife knows that her husband is familiar with information about cars,she is likely to learn specific ways about car maintenance from her husband.In reality,the cognition between individuals(such as couples in intimate relationship or team members)is interrelated and interdependent,and will form a team cognition system.Transactive memory system is a kind of interdependent cooperative division of labor cognition system,which is formed among team members,and used to encode,store and retrieve knowledge in different fields(Wegner,Erber,& Raymond,1991).More and more scholars are interested in transactive memory system(TMS),and mainly focus on the formation and development of TMS,as well as the positive effects of TMS on organizational performance.However,there are relatively few studies on transactive memory system itself,and this study attempts to enrich this field.Transactive memory system consists of two parts: transactive memory structure and transactive memory process.This study attempts to deeply describe the transactive memory structure and transactive memory process of team transactive memory system.Specifically,this paper will be conducted from the following three aspects:(1)explore the content and the pattern of organization of meta-knowledge in transactive memory structure;(2)analyze the emergent form of meta-knowledge based on multilevel approach;(3)explain the occurrence mechanism of transactive memory process(i.e.,how it happens).These three aspects are key points to deeply understand transactive memory system itself.Multi-case grounded analysis method is adopted in this study,which mix the logic of multi-case study and grounded theory to construct theory on transactive memory system.This paper adopts multi-case study method in order to make the research conclusions be more generalization.We selected three real enterprise work teams one after another as the research objects,and conducted semi-structured one-to-one face-to-face in-depth interviews with most members of the three case teams to obtain first-hand information.Lasted for more than one year,we got a total of 31 in-depth one-on-one interviews.Each interview is about60 minutes.The whole interview processes were recorded,and all of the interview audios were transcribed verbatim into the interview text.Finally,we got more than280,000 words totally.In order to deeply understand the text data,‘mine' the distribution of meta-knowledge among team members and the process of knowledge interaction among team members,this study used manual coding to code the interview text of more than 280,000 words again and again.Following constant comparison analysis rule of grounded theory,we compared between material and material,also between theory and theory,until new essential transactive memory system theory developed.Based on multi-case grounded analysis method,this research explored the structure and process of team transactive memory system deeply and got four aspects conclusions as follows:Firstly,metaknowledge of transactive memory structure mainly includes three components: task label,location label and task-location link,and metaknowledge structure takes the form of high and low level.Besides,the hierarchical structure of location labels reflects the organizational structure of the organization which the team belongs to.The lowest-level location labels may include several special individuals—“boundary spanners”.“Boundary spanners” play the role of “bridge”between their own department(or task group)and the outside one,and provide information "channel" for information linkage between departments(or task groups).Secondly,based on multi-level approach,we analyzed emergent form of meta-knowledge and found: the emergent form of high-level and low-level meta-knowledge are different.The high-level meta-knowledge tends to be composition form,and the low-level meta-knowledge tends to be composition or compilation form.The emergent form of low-level meta-knowledge depends on task complexity mainly.If the task complexity is high,low-level meta-knowledge tends to be compilation emergence;If the task complexity is low,low-level meta-knowledge tends to be composition emergence.This paper proposed that we can not regard the emergent form of meta-knowledge as composition or compilation form generally.This result is helpful to explain different viewpoints of scholars on the emergence form of meta-knowledge.Thirdly,transactive memory process includes three micro-processes:information allocation,retrieval coordination(divided into active retrieval and passive retrieval)and integration process.Although the starting mechanisms of these three micro-processes are different,the essence of all the starting mechanisms is to complete task cooperatively.Specifically,the starting mechanism of information allocation is “task dependency”,that is,external information transfer into team because of the task dependency relationship between external unit and team.The starting mechanism of active retrieval is “problem pull”,that is,team member searches for question clues or answers from relevant “experts” due to task problems which cannot be solved by team members themselves.The starting mechanism of passive retrieval is “routine push”,that is,team information holder hand over task information to relevant members based on team development routine.The starting mechanism of the integration process is“information integration”,that is,more than two team members discuss problem and generate new idea due to problem which should integrate information or ideas from multiple members.The starting mechanism of three micro-processes enrich our understanding about operation mechanism of transactive memory system.Fourthly,pathway of transactive memory micro-process may involve both direct and indirect forms.Specifically,information allocation,retrieval coordination and integration processes all may take direct form.Information allocation and retrieval coordination also may take indirect form.If the problem cannot be solved after the first member is founded,then look for another corresponding team member to solve the problem according to the meta-knowledge provided by the first member,which takes indirect form of“transmission” or “out-star”.These results are bases to understand communication network in team transactive memory system.The innovation of this research is shown in the following four aspects:(1)Research angle.This paper analyzes transactive memory system from multi-level perspective,which makes up the limitation of previous single-level research.(2)Research content.The three aspects of transactive memory system itself we explored(i.e.,meta-knowledge content and organization form,the emergent form of transactive memory,and the interaction mechanism of transactive memory process)not only are key points to understand team transactive memory system itself,but also are not clear in previous research.(3)Research methods.This study adopts multi-case grounded analysis method,and grounded in actual situation of real enterprise team.This method is very suitable for these research questions about “what” and “how”.