Empowering teams through social network ties

Effective teamwork and knowledge coordination are becoming increasingly important for all kinds of organizations given the growing use of teams to tackle competitive challenges and sustain competitive advantage. In this study, we develop and validate a model of how two types of social network ties expressive and instrumental contribute first to three dimensions of a transactive memory system (TMS) – specialization, credibility and coordination within teams – and subsequently to team efficacy and performance. We tested the model in an empirical study drawing on data from 66 teams in a variety of organizations. The results suggest that both instrumental and expressive ties within teams can facilitate the formation of TMS and the three dimensions of TMS are all, yet to different extents, positively related to team efficacy. Team efficacy is also a powerful predictor of team performance.