When can teams benefit from external advice ties? the asymmetric influence of spanners’ and receivers’ traits

Abstract

Leaning from external sources is a crucial but challenging task for improving team performance. Using the role-based team composition approach, we investigate how traits of team members in different roles—spanners and receivers—influence a team’s ability to benefit from its external advice ties. We argue that the interplay between spanners’ learning goal orientation and receivers’ agreeableness affect the influence of teams’ external advice ties on team performance. In 88 teams working over the course of 14 weeks, we find that team external advice ties influence team performance more positively when spanners’ learning goal orientation and receivers’ agreeableness are high. We discuss both theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.