Multiteam systems (MTSs), defined as two or more interdependent teams working towards both proximal team goals and at least one shared goal, are prevalent in modern organizations. Prior research has shown that MTS effectiveness is a function of the quality of both the processes occurring within each component team and between the teams in the system (Marks, DeChurch, Mathieu, Panzer, & Alonso, 2005; DeChurch & Marks, 2006). The critical drivers of both team and MTS effectiveness include behavioral processes (explicit actions directed towards others; e.g., communication), cognitive states (knowledge or perceptions; e.g., transactive memory), and affective states (emotions or mood; e.g., stress) emerging from the shared experiences of the members of the team (Cohen & Bailey, 1997; Marks, Mathieu, & Zaccaro, 2001; Mathieu, Marks, & Zaccaro, 2001). While these phenomena exist both within and between teams, prior research has shown that such processes and states cannot be assumed equivalent across these levels (DeChurch & Zaccaro, 2010). Further complicating these relationships, these processes and states are expected to impact the relationships that other phenomena have on performance in addition to their expected direct effects (Ilgen, Hollenbeck, Johnson, & Jundt, 2005). With this, the purpose of this thesis is to study the relationships between process, cognitive and affective states, and performance as each exists within and between teams. Central to this purpose is examining the effects of cognitive and affective states on the relationship between process and performance. These relationships were tested using a laboratory sample of six-person MTSs (N = 118, n = 708) performing an action- and information sharing-oriented task. Utilizing network analysis, the direct and conditional impact of behavioral process (i.e., communication), cognitive states (i.e., advice relationships), and affective states (i.e., hindrance relationships) within and between teams were captured. It was found that the impact of between-team communication on MTS performance was moderated by between-team advice relationships and the impact of within-team communication on team performance was moderated by within-team hindrance relationships. Together, these findings suggest a need to consider the effects of within- and between-team processes on performance as having different conditional relationships with co-occurring states.

Generating innovative solutions for large-scale multifaceted problems increasingly requires the carefully orchestrated coordination and collaboration of complex collectives composed of multiple teams. However, there are many difficulties inherent in collaborative work, which are often exacerbated when individuals hail from multiple fields, perspectives, cultural backgrounds, and geographical locations. Although collective creativity can be maximized when teams leverage functionally diverse information, often residing outside the boundary of the team, this is only true to the extent that teams can effectively reconcile often-competing perspectives. Resolving these countervailing pressures requires leadership networks - patterns of emergent influence - that enable organizational teams to explore and exploit diverse informational sets. In this thesis, I turn to leadership networks in order to understand how the social structure of influence within cross-functional multiteam systems (i.e., MTSs) holds the potential to catalyze innovative new ideas. I evaluate hypotheses about the structure of leadership networks and resulting creative output in a sample of geographically distributed cross-functional MTSs formed using students completing linked semester-long projects across two universities in the US and France. Findings reveal the structure of leadership networks, both during early exploration and later exploitation phases, has important downstream consequences for innovation. First, my results suggest that throughout exploration and exploitation, innovation arises in those MTSs who exhibit leadership networks high in bridging ties and whose leaders have strong mutual influence on one another. Second, I find innovation arises in those MTSs whose leadership networks are highly concentrated around a relative few members during the exploitation phase.

Multiteam systems are an integral part of our daily lives. We witness these entities in natural disaster responses teams, such as the PB Oil Spill and Hurricane Katrina, governmental agencies, such as the CIA and FBI, working behind the scenes to preemptively disarm terrorist attacks, within branches of the Armed Forces, within our organizations, and in science teams aiming to find a cure for cancer (Goodwin, Essens, & Smith, 2012; Marks & Luvison, 2012). Two key features of the collaborative efforts of multiteam systems are the exchange of information both within and across component team boundaries as well as the virtual tools employed to transfer information between teams (Keyton, Ford, & Smith, 2012; Zaccaro, Marks, & DeChurch, 2012). The goal of this dissertation was to shed light on enabling the effectiveness of multiteam systems. One means of targeting this concern was to provide insight on the underpinnings of MTS mechanism and how they evolve. The past 20 years of research on teams supports the central role of motivational and affective states (Kozlowski & Ilgen, 2006; and Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp, & Gibson, 2008) as critical drivers of performance. Therefore it was my interest to understand how these critical team mechanisms unravel at the multiteam system level and understanding how they influence the development of other important multiteam system processes and emergent states. Specifically, this dissertation focused on the influence motivational and affective emergent states (such as multiteam efficacy and multiteam trust) have on shaping behavioral processes (such as information sharing-unique and open) and cognitive emergent states (such as Transactive memory systems and shared mental models). Findings from iv this dissertation suggest that multiteam efficacy is a driver of open information sharing in multiteam systems and both types of cognitive emergent states (transactive memory systems and shared mental models). Multiteam trust was also found to be a critical driver of open information sharing and the cognitive emergent state transactive memory systems. Understanding that these mechanisms do not evolve in isolation, it was my interest to study them under a growing contextual state that is continuously infiltrating our work lives today, under virtual collaboration. This dissertation sought to uncover how the use of distinct forms of virtual tools, media rich tools and media retrievability tools, enable multiteam systems to develop needed behavioral processes and cognitive emergent states. Findings suggest that the use of media retrievability tools interacted with the task mental models in promoting the exchange of unique information both between and within component teams of a multiteam system. The implications of these findings are twofold. First, since both motivational and affective emergent states of members within multiteam systems are critical drivers of behavioral processes, cognitive emergent states, and in turnmultiteam system performance; future research should explore how we can diagnose as well as target the development of multiteam system level efficacy and trust. Second, the virtual communication tools that providemultiteam systems members the ability to review discussed materials at a later point in time are critical for sharing information both within and across component teams depending on the level of shared cognition that multiteam system members possess of the task.Therefore the ability to encourage the use and provide such tools for collaborative purposes is beneficial for the successful collaboration of multiteam systems.