Organizational Behavior Area Virtual Research Seminar Series: Brandy Aven
Brandy Aven
Carnegie Mellon University
ROLE REVERSAL: WHY STRUCTURAL DIVERSITY, NOT JUST DEMOGRAPHICS, DRIVES TEAM SUCCESS
Date: Friday,聽January 17, 2025
Time: 10:30 AM -12:00 PM
Location: Armstrong 155A
All are cordially invited to attend.
Abstract:
Research on team diversity focuses on demographic or functional differences among members and often points to members鈥� network variations as the main explanatory mechanism. Yet, these studies neglect to measure and account for social network roles as originally conceived by network scholars. Adopting the measure of brokerage role diversity (BRD), which is characterized by variations in team members鈥� brokering capabilities in inter-team networks, we contend that it provides a more proximal measure of the performance benefits for diverse teams. While BRD enhances performance by integrating resources from brokers and non-brokers, it can also create collaboration challenges due to competing external pressures and expectations. Analyzing five years of archival data from an international consulting firm, encompassing 60,088 employees and 26,855 projects, our results demonstrate that teams with high BRD not only achieved higher profits but also secured more follow-on client business, particularly when team members had prior experience with high BRD teams. These findings highlight the importance of structural roles in leveraging team diversity for improved performance in knowledge-intensive work.
