The Effects of Team Diversity on Team Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review of Team Demography

Abstract

Over the past few decades, a great deal of research has been conducted to examine the complex relationship between team diversity and team outcomes. However, the impact of team diversity on team outcomes and moderating variables potentially affecting this relationship are still not fully answered with mixed findings in the literature. These research issues were, therefore, addressed by quantitatively reviewing extant work and provided estimates of the relationship between team diversity and team outcomes. In particular, the effects of task-related and bio-demographic diversity at the group-level were meta-analyzed to test the hypothesis of synergistic performance resulting from diverse employee teams. Support was found for the positive impact of task-related diversity on team performance although bio-demographic diversity was not significantly related to team performance. Similarly, no discernible effect of team diversity was found on social integration. The implications of the review for future research and practices are also discussed.

Determinants of the Success of Information Techology Project Management in Thailand

“…Knowledge diversity was interpreted in the manner described in Table 1 by Jehn (1999) and Liang et al (2007) since this is similar to the interpretations by Horwitz and Horwitz (2007), Jackson et al (1995), and Pelled (1996) and distinct from value diversity unlike the interpretations by Milliken and Martins (1996) and Harrison et al (1998). There are inconclusive results among previous studies concerning the effects of team diversity on outcomes and team processes (Horwitz and Horwitz, 2007).…”

“…Knowledge diversity was interpreted in the manner described in Table 1 by Jehn (1999) and Liang et al (2007) since this is similar to the interpretations by Horwitz and Horwitz (2007), Jackson et al (1995), and Pelled (1996) and distinct from value diversity unlike the interpretations by Milliken and Martins (1996) and Harrison et al (1998). There are inconclusive results among previous studies concerning the effects of team diversity on outcomes and team processes (Horwitz and Horwitz, 2007). Liang et al (2007) found that team diversity increases conflicts and Milliken and Martins (1996) found that it produces formal but less frequent communication among members and that teams that are diverse have lower levels of member satisfaction and higher rates of turnover than homogenous groups.…”

“…Team diversity has been conceptualized using three constructs: social diversity; value diversity; and knowledge diversity. Social diversity refers to the observable characteristics of: age; gender; and ethnicity (Jehn, 1999;Horwitz and Horwitz, 2007;Liang et al, 2007) and value diversity concerns differences in what team members think the tasks, objectives, goals, and mission of the project should be (Jehn, 1999;Liang et al, 2007). Previous studies have adopted different but related interpretations for knowledge diversity as summarized in Table 1.…”

“…It influences the degree to which members are motivated to remain on the team to achieve the team's goals (Beal et al, 2003;Dionne et al, 2004;Horwitz and Horwitz, 2007).…”

“…The findings have been inconclusive and it is not clear if there are differences in performance between heterogeneous and homogenous teams (Horwitz and Horwitz, 2007). This influence is important in IT projects where teams may include individuals with varying degrees of: social diversity (age, gender, and ethnicity); knowledge diversity (field and level of education, work experience, and position); and value diversity (beliefs about the mission, goals, objectives, and tasks of the project) (Jehn, 1999;Liang et al, 2007).…”