Team Performance in Cross Cultural Project Teams: The Moderated Mediation role of Consensus, Heterogeneity, Faultlines and Trust

Abstract

Purpose To test the conditional effect of team composition on team performance, specifically, how collective team orientation, group consensus, faultline configurations and trust among team members explain team project objective performance in cross-cultural contexts. Design/methodology/approach Employing path analytical framework and bootstrap methods, we analyze data from a sample of 73 cross-cultural project teams. We assess the impact of group functioning on overall objective performance through dispersion and faultline measures aggregated at the team level. Relying on ordinary least square regression, we estimate the direct and indirect effects of the moderated mediation model. Findings This study demonstrates that the indirect effect of collective team orientation on performance through team trust is moderated by team member consensus, diversity heterogeneity, and faultlines strength. By contrast, high dispersion among members, heterogeneous team configurations and strong team faultlines lead to low levels of trust and team performance. Research limitations/implications Although we integrated the different measures of group consensus and diversity configurations to provide a more accurate picture at the team level, some other limits such as team members' countries-of-origin and the cultural effects of collective team orientation should be taken into further consideration. Moreover, the specific context of the study (MBA and upper undergraduate student work projects) may also have undermined external validity and limited the generalization of our findings. Practical implications From a practical standpoint, these results may help practitioners understand how the emergence of trust contributes to performance. It will also help them comprehend the importance of managing teams while bearing in mind the cross-cultural contexts in which they operate. Social implication In order to foster team consensus and overcome the effects of group members' cross-cultural dissimilarities as well as team faultlines, organizations should invest in improving members' dedication, cooperation, and trust before looking to achieve significant results, specially in heterogeneous teams and cross-cultural contexts. Originality/value This study advances organizational group research by showing the combined effect of team configurations and collective team orientation to overall team performance and by exploring significant constructs such as team consensus, team trust, and diversity fault line strength to examine their possible moderated mediation role in the process.