Top management teams within multinational corporations: Effects of cultural heterogeneity

Elron, Efrat

doi:10.1016/s1048-9843(97)90021-7

Cited by 211 publications

(160 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…As such, in the context of an IJV, the involvement of top managers in the operation of their organizations affects the TMT's cohesion and the resultant organizational performance and goal attainment (Elron, 1997).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…National cultural differences among managers have been found to negatively affect the nature of managerial interactions and to result in poor working relationships (Elron, 1997). As a result, some investigators have argued that deeply-rooted cultural differences at the top management level are likely to have a direct bearing on a TMT's ability to realize stated IJV goals (Barkema et al, 1996).…”

Section: Ijv Top Management Teams Pg 8 Of 38mentioning

confidence: 99%

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International Joint Venture Top Management Teams: Does Heterogeneity Make a Difference?

Julian

Wachter

Mueller

2009

Journal of Asia-Pacific Business

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This article examines relationships among top-management-team composition, group processes, and the effects of those processes on cohesion for international joint venture (IJV) teams in Thailand. For culturally diverse teams, demographic elements (member age, length of team tenure, level of education, functional expertise) and cultural characteristics (country of education, nationality, affiliation with a parent organization, primary language spoken) define heterogeneity. Overall, demographic heterogeneity had a significant influence on openness among team members and on cohesion when mediated by openness. Cultural heterogeneity had a significant influence on openness and cohesion among team members, with the dimensions of trust (loyalty and openness) having a significant influence on cohesion.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ijv Top Management Teams Pg 8 Of 38mentioning

confidence: 99%

International Joint Venture Top Management Teams: Does Heterogeneity Make a Difference?

Julian

Wachter

Mueller

2009

Journal of Asia-Pacific Business

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“…Accordingly, the meta-analysis of studies on multicultural teams by Stahl et al (2007) demonstrated that cultural diversity was significantly related to task conflict, but not to relationship and process conflict. With regard to virtual TNTs, Elron (1997) found a positive effect of national diversity on issue-based conflict, whilst Kankanhalli et al (2007) demonstrated that cultural diversity contributed to both task and relationship conflict.…”

Section: Conflictsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpersonal Relationships in Transnational, Virtual Teams

Zimmermann¹

2011

Firm-Level Internationalization, Regionalism and Globalization

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This article uses a literature review to develop a configurational analysis of interpersonal relationships in transnational teams (TNTs). The configurational appraoch posits that organisational reality cannot be explained by uni-directional, causal relationships between isolated variables, but only in terms of variable configurations, i.e. 'multidimensional constellations of conceptually distinct characteristics that commonly occur together ' (Meyer et al. 1993' (Meyer et al. , p. 1175. The effect of single variables is seen to depend on their interaction with the multitude of other variables in a configuration.TNTs are defined as groups composed of members of different nationalities, who work on a common task. Previous research on TNTs has observed that strong interpersonal relationships are especially important for the functioning of these teams, but are at the same time particularly hard to achieve. Moreover, many studies have singled out particular processes that will here be termed 'aspects' of relationships. This article firstly integrates the transnational and virtual team literature to provide an overview of examined relationship aspects. The article identifies cognitive relationship aspects, which encompass team identity, subgroup formation, shared understanding, and trust. Communication, knowledge creation, and conflicts are described as behavioural aspects, and interpersonal affect is identified as an affective relationship aspect.These relationship aspects are regarded as elements of complex relationship configurations. The paper therefore describes the influence of each of these aspects on other relationship aspects, thereby demonstrating complex interconnections between relationship aspects. This provides a first step towards a configurational analysis. The paper further reviews how several characteristics of the team structure, organisational context, and socio-political environment may facilitate or inhibit several relationship aspects. Special emphasis is placed on the influence of cultural diversity and virtuality as the two factors that are characteristic of TNTs, and which have also been discussed most frequently in the literature.Through a synthesis of previous research, the article then provides an overview of suggested mutual influences between relationship aspects. This leads to a suggestion of two examples of relationship configurations and their driving factors. These configurations are characterised by the orchestrating themes of 'commitment and tight coupling' and 'commitment and loose coupling', respectively. The paper concludes by recommending methods for future empirical research on relationship configurations in TNTs. It argues that a broad range of relationship aspects needs to be included in such research, to examine relationships across a number of different team structures and organisational contexts, and in different socio-political environments. In-depth, qualitative case research is the most suitable for exploring this complex social phenomenon. 2 INTRODUCTIONOver...

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“…This is supported by findings of Jehn (1997) who claims that conflict constrains effectiveness in creative problem solving and influences performance negatively. Moreover, Elron (1997) …”

Section: Ethnic Diversity In Teamsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic and gender diversity, process and performance in groups of business students in Sweden

Umans

Collin

Tagesson

2008

Intercultural Education

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This paper investigates the complex interrelation between ethnic and gender diversity, process and performance in groups of business students. The paper is based on an empirical survey of business students working on a complex assignment in groups of two to five in a small Swedish university. The results indicate that gender diversity leads to positive group outcomes, while ethnic diversity appears to create negative group outcomes. Intervening process variables, such as group communication, conflict and effectiveness in problem solving were not found to be influenced by diversity, or to influence group outcomes. While the non-influence of intervening variables can probably be explained by methodological difficulties, the negative outcome for ethnic diversity indicates a need to help students better manage ethnic diversity in order to reap its benefits.3

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Top management teams within multinational corporations: Effects of cultural heterogeneity

Cited by 211 publications

References 54 publications

International Joint Venture Top Management Teams: Does Heterogeneity Make a Difference?

International Joint Venture Top Management Teams: Does Heterogeneity Make a Difference?

Interpersonal Relationships in Transnational, Virtual Teams

Ethnic and gender diversity, process and performance in groups of business students in Sweden

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