Healthcare teams, characterized by dynamic structures with blurred boundaries, consist of members from multiple clinical disciplines spread across various locations, and often rotating memberships. Previous research has revealed significant variability in team members' perceptions of their colleagues, categorizing them either as core team members—who are consistently viewed as part of the team - or as peripheral team members—who are included less frequently. Studies also show that perceiving a broader set of roles on a core team positively correlates with team performance. However, the relationship with job satisfaction is curvilinear, underscoring the complexity of how perception of team composition impacts satisfaction. Notably, a larger perception of core enhances performance, whereas a larger perceived periphery slightly detracts from it. Drawing on team literature and integration research, our study aims to elucidate the relationships between team perception and individual and team outcomes. We examine clinical integration as a mediator through which perception of team influences job satisfaction and team performance. Furthermore, we propose that the impact of perceived team on clinical integration is moderated by team meeting frequency. To test our hypotheses, we collected data from 59 clinics (828 clinical professionals) in primary care in the United States. We find that clinical integration mediates the relationship between the perception of the core team and both job satisfaction and team performance, as well as the relationship between the perception of the peripheral team and team performance. Additionally, the moderation analysis indicates that frequent meetings with core team members enhance clinical integration, whereas frequent meetings with peripheral team members diminish it. Our findings contribute to the research of dynamic teams with blurred boundaries in two ways: first, we challenge the prevailing notion that more frequent team meetings consistently improve outcomes, provide a nuanced understanding of how frequency of meetings, along with clinical integration, lead to job satisfaction, and improved performance. Second, we underscore the critical role of clinical integration as a fundamental mechanism supporting healthcare team performance. These findings suggest that managers in healthcare organizations should carefully design meeting structures to increase clinical integration and optimize team performance and satisfaction.
