Effective teamwork at the top: the evidence from China

Effective teamwork is an important topic of human resource management, and how top-level managers work effectively as a team is critical to business success. Prior research indicates that the diverse background of top managers influences the effectiveness of their teamwork, and the effects of top management team (TMT) diversity on organizational innovation varies. In this study, we propose that functional team dynamics plays a crucial role in facilitating TMT effectiveness. On the basis of a sample of Chinese firms, our findings support the distinction between demographic and network diversities and the moderating effect of functional team dynamics on TMT diversity–firm innovation relationships.     

Linking top management team age heterogeneity to firm performance: juxtaposing two mid-range theories

Previous research on top management team heterogeneity and firm performance has focused almost exclusively on the non-visible attributes (e.g. functional background, tenure) of cultural diversity as opposed to the visible attributes (e.g. age, race and gender). The few studies there are show inconsistent results. For example, most field work - consistent with social identity theory notions - shows that cultural diversity, in isolation has negative organizational consequences. Only a few laboratory studies, however - consistent with information and decision-making theories - show that diversity in groups relates to favourable organizational outcomes. As social identity theory suggests, we find that top management team (TMT) age heterogeneity, in isolation, relates negatively to return on assets. On sales growth (i.e. organizational growth), the relationship is positive, lending support for information and decision-making theories. However, we find a curvilinear relationship between TMT age heterogeneity and sales growth, supporting both the mid-range theories. More specifically, TMT age heterogeneity is positively related to sales growth at low and medium levels and negatively related to sales growth at high levels. In addition, results reveal that context moderates linear and non-linear relationships. The results provide evidence of the importance of cultural diversity in TMTs for competitive advantage but also suggest the complexities of increasing it to observe these benefits.     

高层管理团队（TMT）有效性的动态模型——人口特征研究与情景领导研究的结合

高层管理团队（Top management team．TMT）作为团队的一种特殊形式，因为其有效性对企业的生存发展起到至关重要的作用．所以近年来受到国内外学者的广泛关注。但是。在过去的文献研究中，我们不难发现，学者较多研究的是TMT在人口特征（年龄，教育背景等）的异质性同不同企业绩效指标之间的关系。但是不同学者的研究结果却往往相互矛盾。为了解释不同研究结果的差异，我们结合权变理论，提出了一个动态模型，来更好地分析TMT的有效性。     

基于认知和价值观视角的高管团队（TMT）社会集成影响因素研究——一个典型群体决策情景下的探索

高管团队社会集成的质量明显地影响团队决策,然而已有的文献未能有效地解释影响社会集成的深层次原因。本文选用了高度群体决策的极端环境企业,采用扎根理论的分析方法和理论构建方法,对H公司的四个高管团队进行了追踪式观察等多种证据材料的收集、分析,发现高管团队的认知和价值观分别制约着社会集成的有效形成,并发现团队领袖和一般高管成员在团队集成中发挥不同作用。本文归纳出团队认知渴求、领袖的开放性、团队合作意识、团队成员责任感、领袖对才能的尊重五个影响社会集成的要素;并进一步结合相关文献构建出基于认知和价值观视角的理解社会集成的理论模型。本研究丰富了高管团队理论及社会集成理论,且对企业实践具有启发意义。     

A temporal perspective on the relationship between top management team internationalization and firms' innovativeness

This study examines whether top management team (TMT) internationalization is positively related to firm innovativeness. Besides focusing on the accumulation of top managers' international knowledge and capabilities, we explore the influence of moderators reflecting temporal concerns at three levels: CEO age, TMT tenure, and firm age. Combining upper echelons theory with innovation literature and using a sample of large stock-listed German firms, we demonstrate that TMT internationalization can increase firm innovativeness. This relationship is context-dependent on the age of the CEO. Overall, this paper sheds light on the antecedents of firm innovativeness and the consequences of increasingly international TMTs.     

Affective diversity and emotional intelligence in cross-functional sourcing teams

In cross-functional sourcing teams, differences in goals and personality traits can lead to tensions and reduced effectiveness. Diversity in teams can be conceptualized as surface-level diversity (e.g., gender, nationality) or as deep-level diversity (e.g., personality, attitudes). This study investigates the potentially negative effects of one category of deep-level diversity – namely, affective trait diversity – on sourcing team performance and how such negative effects might be mitigated through team members' emotional intelligence. The study analyzes a sample of 88 sourcing teams (234 team members) using moderated regression analyses. Sourcing team cohesion is found to fully mediate the relationship between affective diversity and team performance, while the collective emotional intelligence of the sourcing team positively moderates the diversity-cohesion relationship (moderated mediation). Thus, this study provides insights into both the mechanics of team diversity and the critical role of collective emotional intelligence in sourcing teams and thereby enables supply managers to better understand cross-functional team setups and effectiveness.     

高管团队异质性与企业战略变革

高层管理团队在企业战略管理中发挥着决定性作用,是企业战略变革的关键因素之一。高层管理团队异质性会对团队的内部沟通、凝聚力以及决策的效率和质量产生影响,最终对企业的战略变革产生影响。本文首先对国内外高管团队异质性的相关研究进行文献综述,在此基础上提出高层管理异质性对战略变革的影响取决于高管团队能否达成战略变革共识。战略变革共识的达成则要求高管团队整合和利用异质性带来的资源丰富性,并且正确处理团队冲突。     

高管团队社会网络与企业决策绩效的联系机制:理论整合的视角

高层管理团队社会网络与企业绩效之间的关系,是近年来国内外战略人力资源管理研究的热点问题之一。高管团队决策绩效是影响企业绩效的一个非常重要的因素。文章以TMT社会网络为切入点,整合管理者角色理论、信息理论、认知冲突理论以及信任理论,探讨了TMT社会网络和企业决策绩效之间的内在联系机制。     

Top Management Team Functional Diversity and Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of CEO Characteristics

Past research indicates that the effect of TMT functional diversity on firm performance is equivocal. We address this issue by focusing on the integrative role of the CEO, postulating that the CEO's expertise and background characteristics affect the TMT functional diversity–firm performance relationship, because of their impact on the exchange and integration of distributed knowledge within the TMT. Using a dataset of 33 Dutch and Belgian Information Technology firms we investigate the moderating role of three sets of CEO characteristics (functional background, status as founder, and shared experience with the other TMT members) on the relationship between TMT functional diversity and firm performance. Our results reveal that CEO and TMT characteristics do interact in realizing the potential advantages of distributed TMT functional expertise.     

Leading corporate sustainability: The role of top management team composition for triple bottom line performance

Sustainable development at the corporate level requires balancing social, environmental, and financial performance goals. Achieving such “triple bottom line” (TBL) performance is a very challenging task. In this study, we explore the role the organization's top management team (TMT) plays in leading their organization towards corporate sustainability. We focus on how two distinct aspects of the TMT's structural composition—the presence of a “chief sustainability officer” (CSO) and the TMT's functional diversity—affect the organization's ability to reach high levels of TBL performance. We follow the presence of 22 global energy companies in Corporate Knight's “Global 100” sustainability index for a period of 11 years and find that, surprisingly, the presence of a CSO does not boost TBL performance. However, we do find a positive effect for TMT functional diversity, suggesting that more diverse TMTs are better able to lead their organization to higher levels of TBL performance.     

‘Who Knows What?’ in New Venture Teams: Transactive Memory Systems as a Micro‐Foundation of Entrepreneurial Orientation

The increasing importance of entrepreneurial behaviour has led scholars to embrace the idea that an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is an important predictor of firm performance. While EO occupies a central position in strategic entrepreneurship research, scholars have yet to explore its origins in new ventures. Drawing on the knowledge‐based and cognitive views, we theorize that a new venture team's transactive memory system is a cognitive mechanism that spurs the development of an EO. In a field study of high‐tech new ventures in China, we examined the relationship between venture teams’ transactive memory systems (representing the distribution, integration, and utilization of the teams’ knowledge) and EO and the moderating influence of team‐, firm‐, and environment‐level factors. We found that the transactive memory system of a new venture team enhanced their EO and that this relationship was positively influenced by intra‐team trust, the structural organicity of a venture, and environmental dynamism. Our findings provide novel insights into the micro‐foundations of TMS in developing an EO in new ventures.     

Work‐life support practices and customer satisfaction: The role of TMT composition and country culture

Despite the growing prevalence of work‐life support (WLS) practices in companies, there is a lack of theoretical and empirical clarity on their benefits to organizational performance. It is also unclear if the organizational performance effects of WLS practices vary based on an organization's internal and external environments. The dual objective of this paper is to investigate whether WLS practices relate to customer‐focused outcomes and, if so, under which conditions WLS practices yield benefits. Drawing on contingency theory, we examine how the boundary conditions of internal firm characteristics (e.g., percentage of top management team [TMT] members with children) and external environmental factors (e.g., gender egalitarianism of the country) moderate the relationship between WLS practices and customer satisfaction. We shed light on these issues by examining multisource, longitudinal data collected over three years from a multinational corporation operating in 27 countries. The results show that both percentage of TMT members with children and gender egalitarianism of the country strengthen the relationship between WLS practices and customer satisfaction. The findings provide insights into the circumstances when WLS practices provide performance benefits for firms and the translatability of these benefits from one country to another.     

TMT conflict,organizational structure,and entrepreneurial orientation: An attention-based view

Drawing on the attention-based view, this study investigates the linkage of top management team (TMT) conflict to entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and the moderating effect of organizational structure in terms of formalization and centralization on the linkage. It finds that TMT cognitive conflict is positively related to EO, while affective conflict is negatively related to it. Furthermore, formalization positively moderates the linkage of TMT cognitive conflict to EO, while negatively moderates the negative linkage of TMT affective conflict to EO. Moreover, centralization does not significantly moderate the linkage of either TMT cognitive or affective conflict to EO. This study enriches our knowledge of the antecedents of EO, improves our understanding of the value of TMT conflict by distinguishing between TMT cognitive conflict and affective conflict, and introduces a novel insight—the attention-based view—to elaborate the TMT conflict-EO linkage.     

Top Management Teams, Strategy and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analytic Examination

abstract    A considerable amount of research has investigated the linkage between top management team (TMT) characteristics and firm financial performance. Much of this research relies on demographic data. While these data are reliable and accessible, findings across studies are not consistent. Meta-analysis of several TMT indicators and firm financial performance provides modest support for direct relationships but indicates moderating influences. Further meta-analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis enrich these findings by examining potential moderating and intervening factors.     

Experiencing meaningfulness climate in teams: How spiritual leadership enhances team effectiveness when facing uncertain tasks

This study integrates social information processing theory with leadership and climate literature, and aims to produce novel theoretical insights into whether and how spiritual leadership and task uncertainty foster conditions to enhance meaningfulness climate and subsequent team effectiveness in China. Team effectiveness was operationalized as team performance and team organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Based on data collected at three time points over 12 months from multiple sources of 123 teams in China, we found that spiritual leadership was positively related to team performance and team OCB through meaningfulness climate. Further, the relationship between spiritual leadership and meaningfulness climate was stronger for teams with high task uncertainty than teams with low task uncertainty.     

Age diversity and firm performance in an emerging economy: Implications for cross‐cultural human resource management

This study tests the effect of age diversity on firm performance among international firms. Based on the resource‐based view of the firm, it argues that age diversity among employees will influence firm performance. Moreover, it argues that two contextual variables—a firm's level of market diversification and its country of origin—influence the relationship between age diversity and firm performance. By testing relevant hypotheses in a major emerging economy, that is, the People's Republic of China, this study finds a significant and positive effect of age diversity and a significant interactive effect between age diversity and firm strategy on profitability. We also find a significant relationship between age diversity and firm profitability for firms from Western societies, but not for firms from East Asian societies. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of this study's findings. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Supply chain management executives in corporate upper echelons

Supply chain strategies and their implementation have been recognized as a source of competitive advantage. According to the principle “structure follows strategy”, we expect the number of firms having supply chain management (SCM) functions represented on their top management team (TMT) to have increased in the past years. However, little is known about the degree to which executives responsible for SCM functions (i.e., Chief Supply Chain Officers) are present or absent in TMTs and if their presence is related to firm performance. Therefore, we study the TMTs of large US corporations and show that SCM is present in upper echelons, either through executives whose responsibilities explicitly include SCM or indirectly by executives, especially CEOs, who had acquired SCM experience in their previous positions. However, firms׳ operating margins are lower when a Chief Supply Chain Officer is present in the TMT.     

高管团队人力资本与权力配置差异化程度的关系研究

本文在权力配置上采用权力配置差异化程度作为潜变量指标,提出假设,构建模型;通过对110个高管团队的实证调查,利用PLS结构方程模型,分析高管团队特征与权力配置差异化程度的关系、高管团队能力结构与权力配置差异化程度的关系、高管团队价值取向与权力配置差异化程度的关系。最终揭示出团队权力配置合理化,需要提高整个团队的人力资本含量,可以通过选拔更有经验的员工,有好的教育背景的员工,有较好的管理技能的员工作为高层管理团队的成员,以提高TMT能力结构。与此同时,通过培养TMT成员的责任感、诚信精神和协同合作精神来提高TMT能力结构,也是必不可少的。     

Pay dispersion among the top management team and outside directors: Its impact on firm risk and firm performance

Two key groups central to improving firm performance are the top management team (TMT) and the board of directors. Executives undertake strategic actions, whereas board members fulfill their resource provision and monitoring roles. Drawing on tournament theory and equity theory, we propose that high pay dispersion among outside directors and the TMT is positively associated with strategic risk, whereas high (low) TMT pay dispersion and low (high) outside director pay dispersion are positively associated with firm performance. Our predictor is the unexplained component of horizontal pay dispersion, or the residual of pay dispersion resulting from regressing pay on observable firm, industry, period, and individual characteristics. Our results highlight the importance of unexplained pay dispersion for TMTs, but not for boards of directors, in improving firm performance.     

TMT Potency and Strategic Decision‐Making in High Technology Firms

Confidence is necessary for effective top management team (TMT) functioning, however overconfidence or hubris has been associated with poor outcomes. Researchers have struggled to untangle questions of how much confidence is functional and whether there are different forms of confidence. Using data from a field study of 54 public high‐technology firms we provide a richer understanding of the complex influence of one type of confidence, TMT potency on strategic decision‐making. Specifically, using a field study of TMTs of 54 public high technology firms we find potency at least partially mediates the relationship between TMT experience and knowledge, TMT interaction process, and strategic decision speed. Post‐hoc analysis of high potency teams suggests that potency may be either functional – leading to high performance, or dysfunctional – resulting in low performance. Potency appears to be a multi‐faceted construct consisting of both level and domain boundedness. We offer propositions that begin to untangle the origins of functional versus dysfunctional potency or hubris.