Dr. Brandi M. Pearce

TEAM DYNAMICS IN COMPLEX GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS There's no doubt that much of the work done in organizations today is done by teams, making collaboration skills valuable to both students and employers—yet, teams vary greatly in their impact. Often this has little to do with the availability of expertise within a team, but is the byproduct of poor design as well as underdeveloped skills and capabilities needed for team success. "In teams, we often think about managing the project, and forget about designing our teams to cultivate the team dynamics we need to get there," says Pearce, who designed and spearheads the curriculum that spans all three Berkeley-Haas MBA degree programs (Full-Time, Evening-Weekend, and Executive). "So often we are under pressure to execute and don't take time to understand the individual needs and motivations of team members. To ask ourselves are their goals aligned with the team's objectives? How are we going to make decisions? Have we established norms to create a team climate in which members feel safe taking risks and experimenting? And as we progress how are we going to reflect so we can pivot where needed." Most recently, Pearce launched a new course "Leading High Impact Teams" embedded in the undergraduate and full-time MBA programs. The goal of this course is to equip leaders with a deeper understanding of what drives team performance in complex global environments. The experiential format provides students with evidence-based knowledge as well as tools and dynamic hands-on-experiences to 'scaffold' leaders in developing the capabilities and self-awareness needed to harness the true potential of the teams they lead.

This research focuses on new forms of organizing. Specifically, my dissertation entitled: Alliance Context, Collaborative Dynamics, and Partner Effectiveness focuses on collaborative dynamics within alliances and seeks to understand if, and how, the conditions of inter-organizational partnerships impact critical collaborative dynamics that support innovation and alliance effectiveness.

Global Teams Research. This research utilizes ethnographic and quantitative methods to examine the transfer of work practices and a new spatial office design across multi-national organizational sites in India, China, Germany, and the United States with the goal of increasing innovation and creativity. As part of this study, I am working with a team of researchers and Pamela J. Hinds from the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization.

Team lead for the IBM Products Division. Coordinated a team of product managers who were responsible for product positioning, competitive analysis, program management, product launches, coordination of technical and marketing resources for the Oracle/IBM alliance. Required collaboration across multiple groups and organizations.