ABSTRACT
Mathieu, Marks, and Zaccaro (2001) suggested that one of the main benefits of a multiteam system (MTS) is its responsiveness and adaptability to challenging performance environments. The constellation-like nature of MTSs, which consist of separate self-contained teams, fosters adaptability as the teams can be shifted, reordered, dismissed, and prioritized contingent on the demands of the situation. Particularly in emergency situations, characterized by high levels of ambiguity, uncertainty, and rapidly changing environmental dynamics, these flexible structures are crucial for rapid organizational adaptation in an unknown and developing environment. High adaptive capacity makes these systems particularly suitable for quickly bringing together collections of people to deal with emergent nonroutine events. For example, public health organizations employ systems of laboratory, research, clinical, logistics, and evacuation teams to contain outbreaks of infectious diseases (World Health Organization, 2009). During large fire outbreaks, fire departments make use of highly integrated team structures in order to quickly and accurately assess and control the situation (Bigley & Roberts, 2001; Myers & McPhee, 2006). And in the case of major oil spills, networked constellations of teams from various organizations coordinate their activities into a collective containment and clean-up response (Harrald, Cohn, & Wallace, 1992; Hunter, 1993; Kurtz, 2008).
