Gender Diversity, Team Decision Quality, Time on Task, and Interpersonal Cohesion

Abstract

Because of changing workplace demographics, teams are becoming more gender diverse. Most gender research has compared all-male with all-female teams or same-gender with balanced-gender teams. Using 96 four-person teams, this study examined the impact of 5 gender compositions (all-male, lone-female, balanced-gender; lone-male, and all-female) on decision quality, time on task, and interpersonal cohesion. Using a male-oriented task (t = 4.14, p < .05), data analyses revealed significant mean differences indecision quality across the various gender ratios, F(4, 91) = 2.72, p < .05. Furthermore, a trend analysis provided support for the expected direction of the mean differences. As the number of males in the team increased, so did team decision quality; however, lone female teams outperformed all-male teams, F(1, 91) = 9.02, p < .05. No significant differences in interpersonal cohesion or time on task were found across the various gender ratios. A "process" explanation of the findings isforwarded.