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| The Effect of Task Complexity on Team Cognition |
| Zhang Gang,Li Huihui |
| (School of Management,Zhejiang University，Hangzhou 310058，China) |
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Abstract Task is the basis for the existence of knowledge-based team in the organization, and also the inherent prerequisite for the emergence and development of team cognition. Among its many properties, complexity especially reflects the nature of knowledge-based team. From the perspective of system science, task complexity was reduced to three dimensions, namely, the number of elements, interdependence and variability, based on which different task categories were distinguished. A case study was designed to explore the effect of team task complexity on team cognitive structures in real knowledge-based teams. The results indicate that task complexity predicts team mental model well but predicts transactive memory system not so. Further studies on the cases reveal that the emergence of team cognitive structures is a function of endogenous task complexity and exogenous management norms. Only when they match would effective team cognitive structures be made possible. Hence, suggestions for the management of knowledge-based teams are proposed.
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Received: 12 April 2019
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