Decision Making Style Diversity and Faultlines in Teams
Open Access
- Author:
- Fitzgerald, Dinora Rose
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- October 09, 2013
- Committee Members:
- Susan Mohammed, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Sam Hunter, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Stephanie A Shields, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Gul Kremer, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- diversity
decision making style
faultlines
teams
conflict
process conflict
conflict resolution - Abstract:
- As the workplace continues to become increasingly diverse and complex, understanding how multifaceted forms of diversity affects team processes and performance is crucial. This study addresses how rational and spontaneous decision making style diversity affects process conflict within teams and how that process conflict then affects team performance. Additionally faultlines formed by the alignment of decision making style diversity and gender diversity is examined as a moderator of the decision making style diversity to process conflict relationship. Conflict resolution is examined as a moderator of the process conflict to team performance relationship. The sample was 300 individuals in 86 teams enrolled in an Introduction to Engineering Design course at a large mid-Atlantic University. Participants filled out paper-and-pencil surveys after their team had completed their first group project and performance was measured by the grade provided by the instructor on the first project. Moderated hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses. While none of the hypotheses were supported, ancillary analyses indicate that the relationship between group composition and process complex is complex, as is the relationship between process conflict and group performance. Implications for practices and research are discussed as well as possible future directions.