Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

8-2014

Abstract

Five studies examined the relationship between talent and team performance. Two survey studies found that people believe there is a linear and nearly monotonic relationship between talent and performance: Participants expected that more talent improves performance and that this relationship never turns negative. However, building off research on status conflicts, we predicted that talent facilitates performance—but only up to a point, after which the benefits of more talent decrease and eventually become detrimental as intrateam coordination suffers. We also predicted that the level of task interdependence is a key determinant of when more talent is detrimental rather than beneficial. Three archival studies revealed that the too-much-talent effect emerged when team members were interdependent (football and basketball) but not independent (baseball). Our basketball analysis also established the mediating role of team coordination. When teams need to come together, more talent can tear them apart.

Keywords

cooperation, social interaction, open materials

Discipline

Human Resources Management | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Psychological Science

Volume

25

Issue

8

First Page

1581

Last Page

1591

ISSN

0956-7976

Identifier

10.1177/0956797614537280

Publisher

Association for Psychological Science

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Comments

The materials for Studies 1a and 1b have also been made publicly available via Open Science Framework and can be accessed at https://osf.io/y4c82

Additional URL

https://doi.org./10.1177/0956797614537280

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