A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF PRIOR EXPERIENCE VARIETY,

KNOWLEDGE PROCESSES, AND GROUP PERFORMANCE

XIUMEI ZHU
Fuqua School of Business
Duke University
Box 90120
Durham, NC 27708

JONATHON N. CUMMINGS
Duke University

ABSTRACT
Existing literature has largely focused on the amount of experience with scant
attention on the variety of prior experience. This paper develops the construct of prior
experience variety, and argues that individuals with diverse prior experience not only acquire
a broader range of domain-specific knowledge, but also develop greater capabilities for
sharing and integrating knowledge across functional boundaries.

INTRODUCTION
Experience, as an important source of knowledge and skills, has attracted substantial
attention among organizational researchers. The knowledge and capabilities developed from
experience can be an important competitive advantage for individuals as well as collectives
(e.g. Ellis, 1965; Argote, 1999). Existing literature on experience has usually focused on the
amount of experience, such as years of working experience, tenure in a job, or number of
times completing a task. However, in the same amount of time spent working in a particular
company, people can experience dramatically different social interactions, task challenges,
and learning opportunities that are not reflected by the amount of experience. The common
conception of experience does not capture the variation in experience (Tesluk & Jacobs,
1998). A few recent studies provide initial evidence that greater variety in experience matters
(e.g., Beyer & Hannah, 2002; Bunderson & Sutcliff, 2002), but at the same time suggests a
need for further effort along this direction. We believe that (a) a systematic conceptualization
of prior experience variety is yet to be developed, and (b) the implications of prior experience
variety for individuals, groups and organizations are far from fully understood. This paper
will develop the construct of prior experience variety at the individual level to capture the
range of different knowledge and task domains in which individuals have had experience.
While the value of the amount of prior experience is mainly reflected in improved efficiency,
this paper argues that variety in prior experience may be more important in situations when
there is a strong need for knowledge sharing and integration across functional boundaries.

CONCEPTUALIZING PRIOR EXPERIENCE VARIETY

Prior experience variety is defined as the extent to which people have had experience
in different domains of knowledge through direct involvement or via association with others
who have such experience. It captures one important aspect of the content of experience,
rather than the quantity of experience. While the boundary of knowledge and task activities
may arise from other factors such as product groups and geographic location, functional areas
are most commonly used to distinguish domains of specialized expertise and task
responsibilities (e.g., marketing, finance, engineering). Alternative conceptualizations such as
different organizations worked in (Beyer & Hannah, 2002) and different jobs ever held
(Campion, Cheraskin & Stevens, 1994) may also capture the variety in experience to some

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extent, but moving from one organization to another or from one job to another does not
necessarily involve changes in the nature of task responsibilities or the knowledge and skills
used.
Existing studies have primarily focused on experience acquired through direct
involvement, without considering learning through others. However, people can acquire
experience with a domain of knowledge or task through both direct involvement and task-
related interactions with others who have such experience (Huber, 1991). The knowledge and
skills passed on from network contacts in the past would become an integral part of one’s
current stock of knowledge and capabilities to solve problem and pursue further learning. To
fully capture the breadth and variety of experiences regarding domain of knowledge and task,
prior experience variety needs to consider as formative components both (a) the variety of
functional areas in which one has direct involvement and (b) the variety of functional areas in
which one’s prior contacts have experience.

WHAT DO PEOPLE LEARN FROM VARIETY IN PRIOR EXPERIENCE?

We argue that what people learn from a greater variety in prior experience includes
increased breadth of technical expertise and contextual knowledge, and more importantly
boundary-crossing capabilities that are manifested through effectiveness of knowledge
sharing and integration in cross-functional settings.
Breadth of technical expertise and contextual knowledge
Breadth of technical expertise. People accumulate technical expertise primarily
through prior education and work experience (Campion, Cheraskin & Stevens, 1994). By
technical expertise, we mean specialized knowledge and skills in a functional area. It includes
explicit knowledge, which can be codified and communicated through documents, as well as
tacit knowledge, which is harder to articulate and transfer (Haas, 2006; Polanyi, 1966).
Experience in different functional areas enhances the breadth of technical expertise. In terms
of direct involvement, educational experience is important for acquiring more basic,
established, and codified knowledge, while professional experience on the job is particularly
important for acquiring more tacit or task-specific knowledge (Hitt, Bierman, Shimizu &
Kochhar, 2001). Network contacts are another importance source of technical knowledge.
From their network contacts, people obtain a variety of knowledge such as concrete problem
reformulation and technical know-how and know-what (Cross, Borgatti & Parker, 2001).
While direct involvement is more helpful in acquiring tacit knowledge (Nonaka, 1994),
learning from others are more likely to expand more explicit knowledge.
Breadth of contextual knowledge. Contextual knowledge refers to knowledge about
the task and social context in which technical problems of different functional areas are
solved. Existing literature suggests a few important types of contextual knowledge, including
knowledge about who knows what (transactive knowledge, Liang, Moreland & Argote, 1995),
knowledge about patterns of social relationships among fellow workers (relational knowledge,
Krackhardt, 1990), knowledge about the informal norms, preferences and appropriate
behaviors of different functional units in the organization (normative knowledge, Dutton &
Ashford, 1993), and knowledge about general business issues, the role of different functional
units, and the external context in which an organization is embedded (strategic knowledge,
Dutton & Ashford, 1993). Both direct involvement and vicarious experience in a functional
area may familiarize individuals with where to find people or archives with different
functional expertise. Having had experience in different functional units, individuals may be
better able to accurately assess the knowledge of others. Direct involvement is often regarded
as the key to understanding a social system (Krackhardt, 1990) and interaction with contacts
from different social groups is also important for getting to know what is going on inside of
those groups (Obstfeld, 2005). Normative knowledge and knowledge of people’s relationship

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constitute important aspects of the understanding of a social group. Finally, people need to be
exposed to different functional areas to be able to see how different areas operate and how
one’s own role fits into the whole organization. Experience with different functional areas
may allow people to see different segments of the organizational environment and to develop
a more comprehensive understanding.
Boundary-crossing capabilities
Effective knowledge sharing across functional boundaries. People with diverse prior
experience may be more capable of sharing knowledge across boundaries. First, knowledge
sharing is easier when there is a higher level of common knowledge (Bower & Hilgard, 1981).
Prior experience in multiple areas allows individuals to acquire a broad range of technical
knowledge and skills, which make it more likely for individuals to find similar experience or
common knowledge with others. Second, individuals with greater variety in their experience
may be better able to convey complex ideas across distinct body of knowledge. To
communicate one’s knowledge successfully across functional boundaries, people have to
translate and frame what they know in a language that the recipient can understand (Reagans
& McEvily, 2003). Individuals with prior experience in multiple functional areas may be
more aware of the fact that different framing and language is required when communicating
with people with different background. They may also be better able to quickly figure out an
appropriate strategy for communication, such as the appropriate framing comprehensible to
the audience, and language and jargon that are better avoided, and levels of details that are
concrete without being wordy, because they have had experience considering multiple
perspectives and different ways of framing issues.
Effective knowledge integration across functional boundaries. Individuals with
greater variety in prior experience may develop greater capability to integrate different ideas
and perspectives. Knowledge integration is a dimension of information processing that
involves the identification of trade-offs, similarities, complementarities, synergistic
interactions, and categorization within some super-ordinate conceptual schema to organize
different knowledge, perspectives, and ideas into a whole (Burt, 2004; Woike, 1994).
Familiarity with different perspectives and ideas is a pre-requisite for integration (Suedfeld &
Bluck, 1993). People with experience in multiple groups are better able to draw analogies
between ostensibly irrelevant perspectives and ideas, and to see how a practice in one group
could create value in another. Such insight is difficult to emerge if people only have
experience inside a single group, because they tend to look for differences between
themselves and others to justify their assertion that “our situation is different” so they can feel
comfortable ignoring beliefs and behaviors different from their own (Burt, 2004).
Incongruence, differences, or changes usually draw more attention and trigger conscious
reflection (Mezirow, 1991). Prior experience in different functional areas may provide
individuals more opportunities and motivation to consciously reflect upon the perspectives,
beliefs, practices and behaviors they have experienced (Bartunek, Gordon & Weathersby,
1983), which helps individuals become more adept at integrative thought processes.

ORGANIZATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
The information processing view of organization suggests the need for a match
between internal information processing capability and the requirements of task and external
environment (Galbraith, 1973). Individuals and collectives can behave more effectively when
internal variety and information processing capability match up with external requirement.
We argue that variety of individual prior experience, by affecting the effectiveness of
knowledge sharing and integration, may play an important role in shaping critical knowledge
processes and performance outcomes of groups. Adopting a contingency approach consistent
with the information processing view, we discuss the implication of variety in member

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experience in relation to group structure (functional diversity) and task requirements
(interdependency and complexity). As summarized in Table 1, group functional composition
and task characteristics place different information processing demands at different stages of
the knowledge process. The basic proposition is that prior experience variety may matter
more in situations when there is greater need for diverse knowledge acquisition and effective
knowledge sharing and integration, but may have little or no impact when there is no such
need or there exist other factors that can also serve the need.

/* Table 1 about here*/

Prior experience variety, group functional diversity, and knowledge processes

Earlier discussion suggests that individuals with greater variety in their prior
experience may have advantages in acquiring knowledge, and may be more effective when
sharing knowledge with people of different backgrounds, and more skillful in integrating
different ideas and perspectives. Groups that have more members with more variety in prior
experience may collectively have greater capability to acquire, share, and integrate diverse
knowledge. However, exactly when and how variety of prior experience may affect group
knowledge processes need to be considered with reference to group functional diversity.
In terms of knowledge acquisition, the diverse prior experience of individuals may be
more important when the group members are homogeneous in terms of their current
functionally affiliation. Functionally diverse groups possess diverse functional expertise and
have network ties to a variety of non-redundant sources of information (Ancona & Caldwell,
1992). In this situation, even though members with prior experience in multiple areas can
bring in knowledge from different functional areas, they may not add much to the breadth of
knowledge. In contrast, groups with members currently affiliated with the same functional
areas are not automatically positioned to access knowledge and information from different
functional sources. In this situation, if some group members have worked in a number of
other functional areas, or worked with people from different functional areas before, they
may possess expertise from different areas and may be able to tap pre-existing ties to those
sources and bring in more diverse knowledge.
H1. Homogeneous groups will acquire more diverse external knowledge when they
include more members with greater variety in prior experience.
While group functional diversity provides acquisition advantages, it increases the
difficulty in knowledge sharing and integration due to differences in knowledge, language,
and ways of thinking and behaving across functional areas (Dougherty, 1992). However,
difficulty in knowledge sharing and integration can be mitigated if some of the members have
previously worked in multiple functional areas. These members will have fewer problems
understanding others. They can also facilitate communication between other members, since
they can frame knowledge in multiple ways and translate knowledge into a language that is
accessible to people of different background. As a result, knowledge sharing among group
members can be more effective. Similarly, as members with greater variety in prior
experience are better able to integrate different knowledge and perspectives, they can help
mitigate the difficulty involved in meaningfully integrating diverse ideas and perspectives.
H2. Heterogeneous groups will be more effective in sharing knowledge when they
include more members with greater variety in prior experience.
H3. Heterogeneous groups will be more effective in integrating knowledge when they
include more members with greater variety in prior experience.
Prior experience variety, functional diversity, and group efficiency vs group
innovativeness

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 We further argue that greater variety in prior experience may promote different
dimension of group performance in different types of groups. Two important dimensions of
group performance are efficiency and innovativeness. Existing research suggests that
differentiation, such as diverse perspective, and access to novel ideas and information will
enhance innovativeness (Williams & O’Reilly, 1998), while shared understanding about
goals and procedures that facilitate rapid decision making and align member action will
promote efficiency (Wong, 2004). If we only look at current functional background,
homogeneous groups may be less innovative, but more efficient, because members have
similar background and common knowledge, and may reach consensus over goals and
procedures faster. In contrast, functionally diverse groups may be more creative but less
efficient, because they are usually confronted with greater difficulty in coordination, and in
sharing and integrating knowledge and ideas to form a common understanding (Bunderson &
Sutcliffe, 2002).
Prior experience variety may promote both innovativeness and efficiency, given that it
enhances diversity of knowledge and information, and at the same time enables more
effective knowledge sharing and integration across functional boundaries. Its impact on
innovativeness may be heightened in functionally homogeneous groups, because
homogeneous groups would rely more on members’ prior experience in different functional
areas to get a hold on diverse perspectives and novel information. Its impact on efficiency
may be elevated in functionally diverse groups, as these groups are confronted with a greater
need for people with the ability to facilitate knowledge sharing and integration.
H4. Prior experience variety will be more positively associated with group
innovativeness when groups are functionally homogeneous.
H5. Prior experience variety will be more positively associated with group efficiency
when groups are functionally heterogeneous.
Prior experience variety, task characteristics, and group performance
How important variety in prior experience is for group performance may also depend
on the nature of the task, as different tasks pose different information processing demands.
Task interdependence and task complexity are two factors commonly thought to determine
information processing demands (Jehn, Northcraft & Neale, 1999). Task interdependence
determines the extent to which group members need to rely on the information and feedback
from other members for task completion (Thompson, 1967). When the task is highly
interdependent, members have to jointly make decisions. The way one’s own share of the
task is done affects how others complete their tasks and vice versa. The demand for effective
intra-group knowledge sharing and integration and for smooth coordination is heightened.
Therefore, prior experience variety may be more important for group performance when task
interdependence is high than low.
H6. Prior experience variety will be more positively associated with overall group
performance when the task is highly interdependent
When working on simple tasks, groups can rely on standard procedures and practices.
However, when confronted with complex tasks, which are usually not well-understood, have
few set procedures, and involve a high degree of ambiguity, groups often need to debate
multiple perspectives and collect information from diverse sources to accurately assess the
situation, define the problem, and devise task strategies (Bartunek, Gordon & Weathersby,
1983). As discussed earlier, individuals with greater variety in prior experience can draw
upon a number of different perspectives, and are able to collect additional information and
knowledge from diverse sources. They are also more skillful in making sense of diverse
information by identifying connections, reconciling disparities, and balancing tradeoffs to
arrive at an accurate judgment of the situation. Groups composed of members with greater

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 variety in prior experience are likely to demonstrate greater information processing capability
as a whole, and consequently better positioned to handle complex tasks.
H7. Prior experience variety will be more positively associated with overall group
performance when the task is complex.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

This paper focuses on the variety of prior experience, in hopes of contributing to a
richer understanding of experience. The paper argues that prior experience variety not only
enhances the breadth of technical expertise and contextual knowledge, but also enables
greater effectiveness in knowledge sharing and integration in boundary-crossing situations.
Adopting an information processing view of organizations, the paper posits that prior
experience variety may matter more in situations that require diversity in knowledge and
information, and demand effective knowledge sharing and integration. Hypotheses were
developed on when and how prior experience variety may matter for knowledge processes
and performance outcomes in groups. This paper enriches out understanding of learning from
experience by explicating what people learn from diverse experience. The paper also
develops an in-depth theoretical understanding of how individual learning from prior
experience interacts with group structure and task characteristics to affect learning and
performance of groups. The hypotheses put forth are a good starting point for future
empirical research.

REFERENCES AVAILABLE FROM THE AUTHORS

Table 1. Group functional diversity, task characteristics, and their implications for
knowledge acquisition, sharing, and integration
Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge
acquisition sharing Integration

Prior experience Enhance acquisition of Enhance effective Enhance effective

variety diverse knowledge sharing integration

Group functional Increase acquisition Decrease effectiveness Decrease effectiveness

diversity advantages of knowledge sharing of knowledge
integration
Task interdependence N/A Increase demand for Increase demand for
knowledge sharing knowledge integration
Task complexity Increase demand for Increase demand for Increase demand for
diverse knowledge and knowledge sharing knowledge integration
perspective

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