Balancing the Yin and Yang: TMT Gender Diversity, Psychological Safety, and Firm Ambidextrous Strategic Orientation in Chinese High-Tech SMEs

Abstract

This paper offers a novel theoretical account of why and when top management team (TMT) gender diversity lends strategic advantage. Building on social role theory, we develop a moderated-mediation model showing: a) TMT psychological safety mediates the effect of TMT gender diversity on firm ambidextrous strategic orientation (ASO) (why) and b) firm slack moderates this mediated effect (when). We tested our model in the context of Chinese high-tech small-and medium-sized enterprises. After confirming gender differences in social role-based proclivities at the TMT level, a multi-wave survey study of 373 members from 120 TMTs showed that TMT gender diversity positively affects ASO via TMT psychological safety, and this mediated effect is stronger when firm slack is lower than higher. We further interviewed 23 top managers to supplement key quantitative results. Our study advances upper echelons research on TMT gender diversity in two ways. First, it highlights the genderspecific interpersonal benefit of TMT gender diversity, which is markedly distinct from the cognitive-variety argument associated generically with TMT demographic diversity. Second, it considers both men and women in TMTs in a more balanced manner, thereby offering an alternative account to the female-focused theorization of the positive strategic implications of TMT gender diversity.

The Relationship Between Leadership Safety Commitment and Resilience Safety Participation Behavior

“…Empirical research shows that psychological safety can predict multiple work outcomes, such as employee voice behavior, 28 employee innovation behavior, 29 and employee silence behavior. 30 In addition, the relationship between psychological safety and performance is also fully supported.…”

CEO Relational Leadership and Product Innovation Performance: The Roles of TMT Behavior and Characteristics

“…The literature has also shown that the CEO’s effect on firm outcomes is transmitted by TMT dynamics ( Ling et al, 2008 ; Carmeli et al, 2012 ; Zhang et al, 2015 ). TMT voice behavior can act as an interpersonal dynamic within TMTs ( Tang et al, 2021 ) because voicing opinions or suggestions not only involves interpersonal communication, but also engenders conflicts or embarrassment by challenging others which may strain interpersonal relationships and alter the interpersonal dynamics within TMTs ( Detert and Burris, 2007 ). Therefore, based on H1 and H2 and the arguments above, we argue that the effect of CEO relational leadership on product innovation is mediated by TMT voice behavior.…”

“…TMT voice behavior—the extent to which TMT members express themselves to challenges the status quo and bring about constructive changes ( Walumbwa et al, 2012 ; Frazier and Bowler, 2015 )—may damage or upset interpersonal relationships. It represents the interpersonal dynamics within the TMT, which is largely shaped by CEOs and affects firm strategies and outcomes ( Carpenter et al, 2004 ; Tang et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, voice behavior has been acknowledged to have great benefits for innovation because it challenges obsolete practices, brings about novel ideas, and improves efficiency ( LePine and Van Dyne, 1998 ; Detert et al, 2013 ).…”

Research on the influence mechanism of creative time pressure on employee knowledge hiding: Evidence from creative service enterprises in China

“…Team psychological safety climate is defined as a consistent perception of the level of safety of interpersonal relationships by the team as a whole. In teams with a strong psychological safety climate, team members share a common belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking such as openly raising controversial issues and challenging each other ( Tang et al, 2021 ), and there is a higher level of trust among team members, respect for the work product of team members, and a greater tendency to take a shared approach to problem solving. Team members help each other to bring out the strengths of the team, thereby helping to enhance team effectiveness.…”