Threats to the Promise of Synergy in Interdisciplinary Reearch

Abstract

The authors analyze structures and processes in multidisciplinary teams to identify factors that lead to synergistic outcomes from those that do not. They use the analysis to describe settings most likely to produce synergistic outcomes. Generally, situations that foster interaction and exchange of ideas are most appropriate to develop synergy, but several structural and interaction factors—including bureaucratic organization of work, reward systems, status inconsistency and status ambiguity.

Description

Keywords

multidisciplinary teams, synergy, status inconsistency, status ambiguity

Citation