Chapter 6: Situated Expertise: The Extra-Team Outcomes of a Team Transactive Memory Intervention

Awareness of available expertise in a group directly influences the group’s performance. Extensive empirical research on transactive memory systems has demonstrated this link. While there have been numerous research studies of this phenomenon, there is far less known about how interventions designed to increase transactive memory in natural continuing groups may have impacts beyond the groups. I provide an overview of transactive memory research and report on a team intervention designed around transactive memory systems theory. Post-intervention qualitative data was collected through group interviews with participants. The results of these interviews indicate that a significant impact of within-team transactive memory system awareness is in how team members change their interactions across the team. Situated expertise is introduced and defined as the combination of knowledge awareness, help-seeking actions, external benchmarking, and blurred boundaries needed to convert accurate team transactive memory systems into high quality extra-team expertise use.