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Managing Team Effectiveness: the Impact of Diversity and the Mediation of Team Network Density

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Managing Team Effectiveness: the Impact of Diversity and the Mediation of Team Network Density MMaannaaggiinngg TTeeaamm EEffffeeccttiivveenneessss:: The impact of Diversity and the Mediation of Team Network Density Student Details: Name: Omar Bona ASN: 546643 Telephone: 0621 107324 Email: [email protected] Name of Supervisors: - Dr. Petru Curşeu - Dr. Jörg Raab Master of Science in Organisation Studies Thesis Circle: Teams and Networks ________________________________________________________________________________________ ‘Behind an able man there are always other able men’ (Chinese proverb) ________________________________________________________________________________________ 2 ________________________________________________________________________________________ PREFACE This research represents the last step of the Master of Science in Organisation Studies, which I decided to start about one year ago. Moving to the Netherlands was a positive decision: this experience permitted me to develop myself on a more theoretical level and to enhance my analytical understanding of organisational complexity. Besides that, I also learned how to work within multicultural teams and teams in general. Furthermore, I was able to understand the advantages of the learning effects within working groups and this provided me with more capacities and interest on group diversity. The master thesis offered me the opportunity to increase my research skills and my knowledge on mainstream approaches. It permitted me to create a reliable on-line survey and to analyse aggregated data with help of multivariate statistics and structural equation modelling. With this study I would like to contribute something to the literature on diversity, team network density and team effectiveness. Besides the theoretical contributions, with this study I want to offer managers new insights and empirical knowledge on managing group composition, effectiveness and social interactions within working teams. Before starting, I would like to remember that without help of some people, this study would not have been possible. First of all, I want to thank all the people that filled out the questionnaire: their contribution was fundamental for this research. A great thank to the supervisors of my thesis, Dr. Petru Curşeu and Dr. Jörg Raab, which supported me with professional help and advices, and to all the members of my circle for their feedbacks and remarks. At last, I want to catch the opportunity to thank my family, especially my wonderful parents, and my friends for all their confidence, support and love in the past years. Omar Bona Tilburg, June 2007 ________________________________________________________________________________________ 3 ________________________________________________________________________________________ Managing Team Effectiveness: The Impact of Diversity and the Mediation of Team Network Density Omar Bona Tilburg University _____________________________________________________ This study presents a research on the impact of diversity on team effectiveness, and how this relationship is mediated by team network density. The thesis investigates two recently developed concepts of diversity: variety and disparity. The aim of the paper is to research to what extent team network density mediates the relation between diversity and team effectiveness; and whether these two kinds of diversity have different impacts on team outcomes. The study aims to recast the diversity- effectiveness discussion, combining the diversity conceptualization of Harrison and Klein (2007), and the use of methods from the social network theory. The relevance of the research is not only scientific, but the thesis can also contribute and offer managers and trainers empirical knowledge on team composition, social interactions and effectiveness within working groups. Data was collected by setting out an internet-based survey to members of 54 teams. The questionnaire was created using items already tested in the organisational and management literature. The statistical analysis of the data followed the pattern of structural equation modeling. The results fully confirmed the mediating role that team network density plays on the relation between variety of functional expertise and team effectiveness. Partial support was found for the mediating role that team network density has on the relation between power disparity and group outcomes. ______________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 4 ________________________________________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ABSTRACT 1. RESEARCH QUESTION AND RELEVANCE OF THE RESEARCH ...................................................... 7 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Research goal and question ............................................................................................................ 8 Relevance of the research .............................................................................................................. 9 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................ 10 2.1 Defining Team Work ………....................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Team Effectiveness .................................................................................................................... 10 2.3 Diversity in the literature ............................................................................................................. 12 2.3.1 Variety of Functional Expertise ………................................................................................ 14 2.3.2 Disparity of Power .............................................................................................................. 15 2.4 Team Network Density .................... ........................................................................................... 16 2.4.1 Type of Networks ……………………………………………………………………..…………..17 2.4.2 Network Density, Diversity, and Team Outcomes …………………………………………....17 3. METHODS .......................................................................................................................................... 20 3.1 Research design .............................................................................................................................20 3.2 Sample strategy ……..……….….….…..….………………………………..…..………………………. 20 3.3 Measures …....................................................................................................................................22 3.3.1 Construction of the questionnaire ......................................................................................22 3.3.2 Team effectiveness ............................................................................................................22 3.3.3 Team Network Density .......................................................................................................24 3.3.4 Diversity Variables .............................................................................................................24 3.4 Data analysis and preliminary findings …....................................................................................25 3.4.1 A multilevel approach …………..........................................................................................25 ________________________________________________________________________________________ 5 ________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.4.2 Team effectiveness ............................................................................................................26 3.4.3 Team Network Density .......................................................................................................27 3.4.4 Diversity Variables .............................................................................................................28 3.4.5 Correlations …….................................................................................................................29 4. RESULTS ........................................................................................................................................... 31 4.1 Answering the hypotheses ..........................................................................................................31 4.2 Structural equation modeling …....................................................................................................34 4.3 Sobel’s test for the mediating model ….........................................................................................35 5. DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................................... 38 5.1 Interpretation of the results …......................................................................................................38 5.1.1 Variety of functional expertise and team network density ………....………………………38 5.1.2 Variety of functional expertise and team effectiveness …………….………………………39 5.1.3 Power disparity and team network density …………….…………..………………...………40 5.1.4 Power disparity and team effectiveness ….……………....………..………………...………41 5.1.5 Team network density and team effectiveness ………....………..…………………………41 5.1.6 The mediation model ……………………………...……....………..……………...…………42
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