We're in This Together: Communication Openness, Transactive Memory Systems, and Team Identity

Using social identity perspective and a moderated mediation analysis, we tested a model integrating Transactive Memory System (TMS) with team identity and communication openness in a sample of 138 MBA student teams. Results suggest that TMS mediated the relationship between communication openness and team performance. In addition, results also suggest that team identity moderated the relationship between TMS and team performance in such a way that higher team identity lead to better team performance when TMS was high whereas higher team identity lead to lower team performance when TMS was low in teams. Implications of the study for theory and practice are discussed.