Changing Collaboration in Knowledge Work: Design Implications for Jobs, Teams, and Organizations

In the light of economic and technological turmoil, studies on job design, work practices, and organizational design call for research on the changing nature of collaborative practices and teamwork and their implications for job and organizational design. This symposium focuses on the changing nature of teamwork and its implications for individuals and organizations and puts emphasis on three relevant trends that may change how we think about designing and managing teams: i) multitasking and multiple team membership; ii) the increasing cultural heterogeneity of teams; and iii) new collaborative forms based on open-source platforms, open innovation networks, and crowdsourcing. Four papers on the three aforementioned issues will be presented by a multidisciplinary group of researchers. The papers will be discussed from a broader organizational design perspective in order to illustrate the theoretical contributions to the debate on the changing organizational forms for collaboration and innovation, and derive practical hints for organizations that are asked to redesign teams and structure.