Diverse Effects of Diversity: Disaggregating Effects of Diversity in Global Virtual Team

Global Virtual Team (GVT) member diversity provides many advantages but also poses many challenges. Diversity comes in different forms that each has different effects on GVT dynamics and performance. Past research typically explored the effect of only one type of diversity at a time. Using multi-source, multi-wave data from 5728 individuals working in 804 consulting project GVTs, the present study is unique in that it explores and compares the effects of different forms of team member diversity on different aspects of GVT effectiveness in a single sample. It proposes a refined theoretical model that differentiates between the effects of personal versus contextual diversity and articulates how these distinct forms of diversity affect different aspects of GVT effectiveness (i.e., task outcomes versus psychological outcomes). The results reveal that (1) team member diversity in general has a substantial effect on GVT effectiveness; (2) contextual diversity has a positive effect on task outcomes; and (3) personal diversity has a negative effect on psychological outcomes. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.