Team Scaffolds: How Minimal In-Group Structures Support Fast-Paced Teaming

Working papers are in draft form. This working paper is distributed for purposes of comment and discussion only. It may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder. Copies of working papers are available from the author. for their thoughtful suggestions on previous drafts. We are grateful to the Division of Research at Harvard Business School for funding this research, and wish to acknowledge the superb research assistance of Sydney Ribot and Olivia Ely. We also thank the many individuals at " City " Hospital for their significant commitment of time and effort, which made this project possible. Abstract Across many industries, particularly in health care delivery, interdependent work is performed under conditions that make bounded stable teams infeasible, creating a need to understand factors that foster teaming in the absence of team stability. Teaming refers to coordination and mutual adjustment during episodes of interdependent work. The present research investigates teaming in the high-stakes, fast-paced setting of a hospital emergency room, and focuses on the effects of a new organizational structure, which we call a team scaffold, on teaming effectiveness and performance outcomes. Using a multi-method research design with qualitative interview and observational data and quantitative operational data analyzed with adapted network methods, we examine whether and how team scaffolds facilitate teaming in a dynamic work environment. Although team scaffolds were implemented with little or no membership stability, their introduction triggered significant changes in teaming networks and behaviors in ways that improved operational performance. Implications of team scaffolds for theory and practice are discussed.