Can too many cooks spoil the broth? Coordination costs, fatigue, and performance in high-intensity tasks

Workplace flexibility offers a wide range of opportunities but also carries risks within the context of collaborative tasks. While increasing the number of collaborators can reduce fatigue and therefore enhance performance, it also increases coordination costs. Our study investigates this trade-off in a complex team task with high effort costs in a natural setting. We use the instrumental variables method combined with an extensive sensitivity analysis to identify the causal effect of in-game substitutions on performance in professional basketball. Our findings suggest that increasing the number of collaborators, on balance negatively affects team performance. However, we also provide evidence that the most successful teams are able to optimally trade off both effects.