Interteam Coordination, Project Commitment, and Teamwork in Multiteam R&D Projects: A Longitudinal Study

Organizations increasingly set up multiteam projects for the development of highly complex products. While team research has emphasized the importance of team-internal processes for smaller scale projects, we know little about collaborative processes (especially between teams) in such large-scale projects. This study utilizes a multi-informant longitudinal research design on a product development project (39 teams, 36 months) in the European automotive industry investigating collaboration between and within teams. The results of the study demonstrate that interteam coordination, project commitment, and teamwork quality as rated by the team members at Time 1 (Month 12; end of concept phase) are significantly correlated to project managers’ ratings of overall team performance at Time 3 (Month 36; end of project). The process variables measured at Time 2 (Month 24; end of design phase) display generally weaker correlations with team performance at Time 3. Multiple regression analyses further detail the effects of collaborative processes within and between teams on different measures of team performance (i.e., overall performance, quality, budget, schedule). The results show that collaborative processes during the project have predictive properties in regard to later team performance and can serve as early warning indicators. Furthermore, the results of this study provide support for our hypotheses predicting positive relationships between interteam coordination, project commitment, and teamwork quality. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.