Diversity Connects

Diversity Connects

How team–heterogeneity & behavioural integration affect top management teams’ decision quality

Introduction

Diversity within top management teams (TMT) has been a long ongoing debate within research to upper echelons performance. Although past literature on group diversity has come to provide us with contradicting empirical results, as stated by Milleken & Martins (1996) who have described diversity as a two-edged sword. Despite the mixed findings of the past, diversity in groups and teams is often portrayed as a positive force leading to effective functioning of the team. (Knight et al. 1999)

In this paper, a small research study is conducted that focuses on the effects of team heterogeneity and behavioural integration in TMTs and the effect these two forces have on the decision quality and performance of the firm. The focus of this study is derived from the observations that have been conducted during an TMT meeting, after which relevant papers were chosen to create the theoretical framework. The relevance of this paper is that it will provide a better understanding on how strategic top management decisions are realised.

The case study for this research has been conducted within a top management team in the Dutch banking industry: Rabobank Westelijke Mijnstreek. Rabobank Westelijke Mijnstreek is a division of the Rabobank Group in the Netherlands. Employing 350 employees who provide financial services to 122.000 customers within the municipals of Sittard-Geleen, Stein and Beek that are located in the south regions of the Netherlands. Data collection has been done by first observing a TMT meeting, after which surveys were conducted among TMT members. Also the observers filled out a survey, and face-to-face interviews were held with people who were directly affected by the TMT decisions. Data from the surveys that were filled in by the observers and by TMT, were entered in SPSS. Secondary data where collected of the Rabobank...