Transactive memory system in a distributed software development team: A case study

Physically dispersed R&D teams are indispensable part of modern economy. Challengers in managing such teams include management over electron media, multicultural team composition, geographical and temporal distribution of team members. Research on distributed teams does not keep the pace with reality. Similarly, knowledge utilization, i.e. application of the knowledge that already exists in teams, is the least studied stream in knowledge management research. Current study seeks to fill in these gaps by studying knowledge utilization in a distributed new product development team from a perspective of a transactive memory system. Transactive memory system is a concept of group memory that allows to analyze how people may utilize each other knowledge in teams. This concept evolved out of the observation that people may, instead of memorizing information themselves, remember who experts in certain areas are and contact these experts when necessary. Transactive memory system describes three aspects of R&D work: expertise heterogeneity of team members, homogeneity of their knowledge of "who knows what" as well as "who knows who" in a form of communication network. This paper uses a case study approach to study (1) how transactive memory system looks like in a distributed team, (2) how it is connected to communication between team members, as well as (3) if it is a necessary attribute of a successfully performing distributed team. Collected data indicates that transactive memory system in a distributed team is geographically localized, i.e. team members know better those who are geographically proximate. Furthermore, it is shown that frequent communication between team members is important for the development of a transactive memory system. In a distributed team, overall communication pattern of a distributed team (frequent communication ties) is also geographically localized. The third question remains unanswered because the case team performance was rated as average. Implications for theory include recommendation on a careful usage of the existing questionnaire for measurement of transactive memory system in distributed settings: the word "team" may lead to erroneous results. Managers who seek to develop in their teams transactive memory systems are advised to encourage communication particularly between teammates in remote locations.