willingness. For example, project managers may plan team-building events to
create a shared mental model. Team-building activities usually include
giving and receiving mutual support,
communication, and sharing. It can
develop trust among team members
and encourage collaboration, which can
facilitate information processing within
the team. As team members achieve
higher levels of trust, the willingness to
coordinate can be encouraged.
Moreover, coordination ability is
another critical factor to enrich coordination behavior. Project managers not
only can select team members with sufficient abilities when initializing projects but they also can provide some
training courses to improve team members’ skills and abilities. By improving
both willingness and ability, members
can coordinate their expertise and
efforts to create project success.
This cross-sectional study is not
without limitations. Coordination behav-
ior may also impact the willingness and
ability to coordinate in the future. For
example, when members integrate their
to encourage appropriate actions,
enhancing the intrinsic motivations
of individual members, and exercising
transformational leadership to improve
team cohesiveness. Coordination abil-
ity can be enhanced through informa-
tive work communication, building
standardized procedures for coordina-
tion, socialization, or providing ade-
quate training to improve task skills
and the ability to coordinate (Gerwin,
2004). Having a shared understanding of the tasks and knowing the location of expertise is also required for
the efficient coordination of expertise
(Mitchell, 2006; Nonaka, 1994).
Apart from contributing to the lit-
erature by disentangling the relation
between willingness, ability, and behav-
ior, this study has practical implica-
tions for practitioners. It suggests
that although coordination behavior
is important, coordination willing-
ness is relatively more important than
coordination ability. When coordina-
tion behaviors are low in teamwork,
we recommend that project manag-
ers strategize to foster coordination
IS context, revealing the potential for
work on the appropriate components
of coordination. Consequences flowing
from behavior and management inter-
ventions (antecedents) should lead to
willingness or ability.
The identification of different antecedents helps both researchers and
practitioners determine what can be
done to foster the willingness to coordinate and to enhance the ability to
coordinate. Researchers may further
clarify the picture by exploring potential antecedents for willingness and
ability based on various organizational,
behavioral, psychological, or small-group-based theories. For example,
willingness to coordinate can be promoted by reducing interpersonal uncertainty, providing extrinsic motivations
Expertise
coordination
willingness
Expertise
coordination
ability
Expertise
coordination
behavior
R2 = 0.25
Project
performance
R2 = 0.20
System quality
R2 = 0.23
0.19**
0.40**
Personal work
satisfaction
R2 = 0.40
*: p < 0.05; **: p < 0.01
0.20*
0.14
0.06
0.38**
0.48**
0.62**
–0.04
–0.16
0.02
Figure 3: Examination of direct paths.
