Is What You See What You Get?

Abstract

In this study, the authors observed and examined 57 bank branch teams to better understand the consequences of two types of team heterogeneity— surface level (gender and ethnicity) and deep level (collectivism cultural values and tenure)—on internal (group efficacy) and external (team reputation) team outcomes, arguing in general that heterogeneity has a negative impact on group efficacy but a positive impact on team reputation. As proposed, teams with lower tenure heterogeneity had higher group efficacy, and teams with higher gender heterogeneity and higher collectivism heterogeneity received better ratings on team reputation. However, contrary to the hypotheses, the relationship between collectivism heterogeneity and group efficacy was positive, and the relationship between ethnic heterogeneity and team reputation was negative. Implications for theories of social cognition, group development, and international management are discussed.