Psychological team diversity and strategy implementation

The overwhelming majority of team or group composition studies are restricted to analyzing the link between team demographics and the content of specific strategic choices. We argue that in order to make progress in this domain it is now time to broaden the approach by focusing on psychological team composition and issues of effective implementation. In addition, we propose a more sophisticated theoretical and methodological approach to the use of specific team composition measures. We conducted an experimental study in order to explore the potential of addressing these major limitations of past research. Specifically, we hypothesize on and analyze the relationship between the psychological composition of management teams (in terms of their members'' control perceptions) and two aspects of effective strategy implementation: meticulous planning and the configuration of consistent action patterns. We find that homogeneous ''internal'' teams adapt their strategy-making behavior to the requirements of the environment, whereas homogeneous ''external'' teams do not. As expected, mixed (i.e., heterogeneous) teams experienced most problems in effectively implementing their strategies. The findings provide support for the potential value of analyzing both psychological composition of decision making teams and strategy implementation issues. Furthermore, it underscores the importance of properly matching theoretical expectations and measurement methodology in multi-level research.management and organization theory ;

THE GENESIS OF TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM DIVERSITY Selective Turnover among Top Management Teams in the Dutch Newspaper Publisher Industry (1970-1994)

This paper develops and tests a model explaining diversity within top executive management teams from the perspective of selective turnover. We draw on two theoretical perspectives to describe the pull toward team homogenization (low diversity) and the push toward team heterogenization (high diversity). Schneider’s attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) model is used to explain the team’s natural tendency to ‘hire likes and fire unlikes’ (so-called homosocial reproduction), provided it has the power to do so. Rational-economic theory, however, suggests firm-specific countervailing imperatives pulling a team toward heterogeneity in order to cope with the requirements of the environment. We propose that the cycle of homosocial reproduction only gets interrupted when the teams face a compelling need for diversity, particularly when organizational performance is poor, diversification is high and competition is tough, but that the reproduction cycle is maintained if the top executive management team is powerful vis-à-vis the board of directors. We test our hypotheses in a population of top executive teams of the Big Five Dutch publishers over a 25-year period. Interestingly, many of our expectations are not supported. Relating to entry, we find that poor performance and high diversification causes teams to select likes. Moreover, although more powerful teams do tend to select likes, this is even more so when competitive intensity increases. Concerning exit, we find that poor performance increases the overall likelihood of executive exit, and that dissimilar managers tend to leave first. We conclude that homosocial reproduction does occur, particularly when the organizations face conditions that at first glance require more team diversity. Apparently, top management teams tend to close ranks when environmental pressure and complexity increases. Explanations for these findings are discussed, which point the way to new research avenues.Economics ;

Locus of control and study program choice: evidence of personality sorting in educational choice

In this study we investigate whether the process of Attraction Selection and Attrition as described by Schneider (1984) is already operative prior to labor market entry, i.e., in the educational phase of careers. We focused on selection with regard to the locus of control personality trait because of its firm conceptual and empirical relevance in both content and process of choice. Specific hypotheses were proposed as to the sorting of different personality types in study programs leading to different prospective professional careers. The study was carried out in a sample of 164 Austrian students. We found strong support for our hypotheses in that (1) personality predicted specific study choices and (2) personality predicted different levels of rationality in the choice process. In addition, the findings also suggest that tighter matches between personality and study programs could be observed for students making rational choices. The results indicate support for the validity of the ASA model in educational choice, provided the use of meaningful individual differences. Several promising avenues for future research are identified.management and organization theory ;

TEAM COMPOSITION, LEADERSHIP AND INFORMATION-PROCESSING BEHAVIOR A simulation game study of the locus-of-control personality trait

In this study, we relate the individual locus-of-control personality trait of team members to the team’s information gathering and processing behavior. We adopt a team information-processing approach arguing that a team’s information-processing capacity is a function of its composition with respect to the members’ locus of control and the leadership structure of the group. We develop models that go beyond analyzing simple main effects of differences in team locus-of-control composition. We hypothesize that (a) the impact of the team locus-of-control mean depends on the within-group locus-of-control diversity, and (b) the effect of both the team locus-of-control mean and its standard deviation is contingent upon the leadership structure of the group. The hypotheses were tested on 44 teams participating in an elaborate international management simulation over six time periods. As predicted, we find that teams with a high average internal locus-of-control score collect more information and make more informed decisions when the within-team locus-of-control spread is low, and when the team operates without a leader. The opposite is the case for teams with a high average external locus-of-control score. In addition, locus-of-control diversity induces team information search only in the case when the team has no leader. We also show that team financial performance is comparably affected by our focal independent team variables. On a general level, our results offer strong support for recent pleas to study theoretically relevant individual traits, use proper aggregation models and include structural moderator variables in team composition research.Economics ;

The Interaction between Personality, Social Network Position and Involvement in Innovation Process

Abstract This dissertation proposal investigates how personality and individuals’ social network position affect individuals’ involvement into the innovation process. It posits that people would feel inclined to become involved into the different phases of the innovation process depending on their Big Five personality traits. Additionally, this research elaborates on personality antecedents of social relationships and network structure. Furthermore, it accounts for the dynamic relationship between stages in innovation process and social network structure. Finally, it posits that there is potentially a mismatch between social network structure in different stages of the innovation process, and that this mismatch is caused by individuals’ personality. The suggested conceptual framework contributes to the innovation literature by enriching our understanding of why people create markedly different patterns of social ties in the workplace and how this tie formation process and personality influence innovation process. An empirical study aimed at testing the suggested propositions is suggested

On becoming (un)committed: A taxonomy and test of newcomer on-boarding scenarios

How does the bond between the newcomer and the organization develop over time? Process research on temporal patterns of newcomer's early commitment formation has been very scarce because theory and appropriate longitudinal research designs in this area are lacking. From extant research we extract three process-theoretical accounts regarding how the newcomer adjustment process evolves over time: (1) Learning to Love; (2) Honeymoon Hangover; and (3) High Match, Moderate Match, or Low Match. From these scenarios we develop a taxonomy of newcomer adjustment scenarios. Further, we empirically verify these different scenarios by examining naturally occurring "trajectory classes," which are found to display strengthening, weakening, or stabilizing of the employee-organization linkage. For this, we use a sample of 72 Ph. D. graduates whose organizational commitment history was recorded in their first 25 consecutive weeks of new employment. In closing, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the scenario-based approach

General and specific social learning mechanisms in foreign investment location choice

We integrate economic and institutional theories of location choice in an overarching social learning conceptualisation. Investors learn about the attractiveness of alternative locations by observing the actions of previous investors (‘models’). We distinguish two types of learning that can occur simultaneously. With assessment learning, investors judge the economic feasibility of investment in a location by observing generic models. With bandwagon learning, firm-level uncertainty prompts the following of specific models over others, with recentness of model behaviour an important moderator. We find broad support for our conceptualization in an analysis of 692 Japanese electronics firms’ entries into Chinese provinces during 1979-2001.status: publishe