高管團隊性別結構多元化的雙刃劍效應﹔基於團隊合作文化的主題分析

Abstract

The multiple gender composition of top management teams has become a trend in society and modern organizations. The multiple gender composition is considered one of the critical indicators of organizational inclusiveness. People also believe that it is conducive to creating a culture of group teamwork and, thus, corporate development. However, in practice, we have contradictory observations on the impact of the multiple gender composition in top management teams. On the one hand, the multiple gender composition in teams has facilitated organizational power sharing and teamwork by improving the organizational cooperation environment. On the other hand, we have also observed that gender issues in organizations are often controversial, and sub-group conflicts arise between male and female executives due to power distribution issues, hindering organizational power sharing and teamwork. This study aims to address this confusion.

Through a comprehensive literature survey, we identify two main theoretical perspectives that explain the impact of the gender composition of executive teams in previous studies. One emphasizes the positive effect of The multiple gender composition on organizational teamwork culture. This school focuses on the cognitive diversity brought about by the multiple gender composition, the unique qualities of female leaders, and the complementary roles of male and female managers. Instead, the second school emphasizes the negative effect of faultlines formed between gender sub-groups on the culture of teamwork. Gender faultline theory views different gender groups as potentially conflicting parties by theorizing the “faultlines” between different groups. The formation of a teamwork culture is hindered by conflict of interest and competition between sub-groups.

This study posits that The multiple gender composition of teams is a structural issue, with gender diversity theory focusing on the structure-level macro outcomes and gender faultline perspective focusing on the micro features of the structure. By integrating macro and micro perspectives, this study analyzes the impact of gender diversity on the “cooperation climate,” “cooperation benefits,” and “cooperation risks” in organizations to unpack its influence on the culture of teamwork. This study suggests that the multiple gender composition has double-edged sword effects on the culture of teamwork: gender diversity in the executive team promotes the formation of a culture of teamwork, while gender fault lines in the executive team inhibit the formation of a culture of teamwork. The study then explores the marginal conditions of the theory at the institutional level: the moderating role of social ideology. When individuals are in a liberal-leaning social ideology, feminine traits in executive teams are more respected and brought into play, and men are more willing to break gender behaviour stereotypes, thus improving the spillover effect of feminine traits in male groups and amplifying the positive impact of gender diversity on the cooperative climate.

Another contribution of this study is developing the measurement of a teamwork culture. Using a machine-learning-based topic modeling technique with manually collected texts of corporate surplus conference calls, this study generates indicators of a teamwork culture. This study fills the gap between the shortcomings of questionnaires and word frequency statistics in empirical studies of organizational culture. Also, this study employs a rigorous variable validation method to verify the accuracy and consistency of the theme modelling results.

Regarding the analytical approach, this study deals with the potential endogeneity. In the additional analysis section, this study also explores the effect of teamwork culture on corporate performance. This study finds that the formation of a teamwork culture significantly positively affects the culture of teamwork. The finding expands the practical implications of the study.

This study makes two contributions. Theoretically, this study aims to investigate how gender diversity in executive teams both facilitates and hinders the development of a culture of teamwork, thereby bridging the gap between different narratives of the impact of gender diversity in practice observations and providing a way to resolve the inconsistent arguments in existing theories on this issue. On the practical side, by clarifying the facilitating and hindering factors of teamwork caused by gender diversity, we highlight both the positive aspects of diversity in practice and the potential reasons why diversity is challenging to implement in organizations.

Date of Award	24 Mar 2023
Original language	Chinese (Traditional)
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Haibin YANG (Supervisor) & Chenting SU (Supervisor)