Leveraging a team-centric approach to diagnosing multiteam system functioning: The role of intrateam state profiles

The increased reliance on team-based structures within 21st century organizations has sparked a stream of research investigating the drivers of collaboration within and across multiteam systems (MTS), comprised of distinct, interdependent component teams. To date, MTS research tends to rely on the simplified—and potentially inaccurate—assumption that component teams within a MTS are homogenous with regard to their emergent intrateam properties (e.g., team attitudes, behaviors, cognitions). We suggest that team-centric approaches may better characterize the ways in which emergent intrateam properties might vary across different MTS component teams—operationalized with what we term ‘intrateam state profiles.’ Leveraging cancer care MTSs as an illustrative example, we detail the need for team-centric approaches as complementary to traditional, variable-centric approaches to studying collective phenomena. Specifically, we explore intrateam state profiles as a mechanism for understanding complex interactions of emergent properties within teams that may profoundly affect system functioning and associated HRM practices.