Team Identity and Transactive Memory in Strategic Performance Measurement System Design

• In Event: Social Ties, Team Identity, and Political Bias

Abstract

Effective design of strategic performance measurement systems (SPM) such as the balanced scorecard (BSC) is critical for long-term competitive advantage. We examine how team affective processes (namely team identity) influence team cognition (namely transactive memory) and lead to more effective SPM design in established teams. We introduce the notion of team-task identity (TTI), which denotes the extent to which members internalize the goals of the team’s task. TTI impacts the team’s transactive memory system (TMS) and facilitates effective usage of members’ knowledge sets. We conduct a 2x1 (TTI present/absent) experiment where 118 middle-level managers work in 21 established teams to design a BSC. We find that stronger TTI leads to greater BSC design effectiveness, and TMS partially mediates this relation. Component dimensions of TMS (specialization, credibility, coordination) have differential impacts in this mediation relation. Our research contributes to an understanding of the micro-foundations of effective SPM design.

Authors

• Aishwarrya Deore, Michigan State University

• Ranjani Krishnan, Michigan State University

• Xue Yang, Michigan State University