Multilevel Investigation of Team Learning Behavior: Boundary Spanning and Psychological Safety as Antecedents

Abstract

As organizations increasingly rely on teams for the fundamental unit of learning, researchers have given much attention to how teams learn new information and knowledge. They have concentrated on team-level factors and found some critical antecedents (e.g., team psychological safety, team learning orientation) that would enhance the team learning behavior. However, the heavy focus on the certain level of analysis constrained our knowledge whether individual-level antecedents could influence higher-level learning interaction or not. This is because a team is a social system involving both individuals and team context makes the team learning a fundamentally multi-level phenomenon. In this regard, using multi-level dataset, the present study seeks to test a multilevel model, based on a multilevel theory of team learning emergence. It was explained that boundary spanning is a critical individual-level antecedent of team learning, which is known for enhancing external learning. Specifically, I argue that boundary spanning has a cross-level upward influence on team learning behavior. Drawing from a concept of social and vicarious learning, this study explains how products of individual external learning propagate to other teammates. The current study also hypothesizes that team psychological safety enhances team learning behavior, and team learning behavior mediates the positive effect of psychological safety to team creativity. Data was collected from teams in start-up firms to increases the generalizability of previous findings on this team-level relationship. In addition to quantitative analysis, supplementary qualitative analysis (i.e., semi-structured interview) was conducted in order to complement the limitation of cross-sectional study design. The results indicated that boundary spanning exerted an upward influence on team learning behavior. In the team-level analysis, the results showed that team learning behavior mediates the positive influence of team psychological safety on team creativity, thus confirming the previous evidence in the start-up context. Additional interviews with the current employees in various industries also supported the process through which team learning behavior emerges from boundary spanning. This study provides empirical evidence on both team-level and individual-level antecedent of team learning behavior. The study contributes to team learning and boundary spanning literature that is currently lack in multilevel, especially an upward influence approach. Implications for managers, along with limitations and future research directions are also discussed.