AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings - Academy of International ...

MONDAY
A Comparative Analysis of the Effects of Different Forms of Team Diversity on Global Virtual Team Performance
Vas Taras, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Pawel Bryla , University of Lodz
Dan V. Caprar, University of New South Wales
Alfredo Jimenez, University of Burgos
Peter Magnusson, Florida International University
Riikka Sarala, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
International on-line collaboration is an inherent feature of the modern workplace. Global virtual teams can
enjoy benefits but can also experience challenges due to diversity of member backgrounds, values, and
geographic dispersion. Advancing earlier research on the relationship between team diversity and performance,
the novelty of the present study is that it offers a simultaneous comparative evaluation of the strength and the
direction of the effects of various dimensions of diversity – demographic, geographic, time-zone, cultural,
institutional, and perceived – on team performance. The data were collected as a part of a large academic
experiential learning exercise that involved over a thousand undergraduate and MBA students from 26 countries
working together in international teams of four-eight students for about eight weeks. The results confirmed a
significant effect of diversity on team performance, but also revealed substantial differences of the effect
strength and direction across diversity dimensions and measures. (For more information, please contact: Vas
Taras, University of North Carolina Greensboro, USA: v_taras@uncg.edu)
Multinational Teams: Cultural Differences, Interactions, Organizational Context, and Performance
Aida Hajro, Brunel University
Markus Pudelko, Tübingen University
Cristina Gibson, University of Western Australia
This paper extents the literature on multinational teams (MNTs) in a series of ways: First, we demonstrate that
the relationship between national cultural diversity and MNT performance is mediated by inter-cultural team
interactions. Furthermore, we show that MNT interaction can lead to a process of hybridization in which
cognitive convergence between team members takes place so that they can negotiate and manage successfully
their cultural differences. Next, we re-veal how the macro-organizational context, in this study operationalized
by corporate strategy, can either facilitate or impair the process of the inner-team negotiation of cultural
differences, resulting in different degrees of team performance. Our study is based on 162 in-depth inter-views
with team members and leaders across 89 different teams from eleven different companies plus extensive
participant observations. (For more information, please contact: Aida Hajro, Brunel University, United Kingdom:
aida.hajro@brunel.ac.uk)
Getting the Best from Cultural Diversity: Psychological and Structural Elements in a Five T-model
Geetha Garib, UCL
Previous models of diversity effects have either sought to promote diversity by monitoring its performance (De
Anca & Vazquez, 2007) or included task characteristics and psychological aspects (Knippenberg et. al., 2004) in
order to manage diversity. However, diversity models have not yet combined both structural and psychological
elements. The Five T model (Training, Time, Talk, Threat to the majority and Together) builds further on the
CEM of Knippenberg et. al (2004) and combines structural and psychological elements to manage cultural
diversity effectively, as it includes main elements to decrease negative effects and increase positive effects of
cultural diversity. (For more information, please contact: Geetha Garib, UCL, United Kingdom: y.r.garib@uvt.nl)
AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings
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