Strong Faultlines Research Articles

On the Same Side of the Faultline: Inclusion in the Leader's Subgroup and Employee Performance

ABSTRACTExtending theory on faultlines and subgroups, we argue that faultlines splitting a team into homogeneous subgroups can have different effects on team members' individual performance, depending on different intra‐subgroup processes. Specifically, we propose that the effect of faultline strength on individual performance depends on whether a team member's subgroup includes the team leader. Building on the notion of faultline triggers, we further propose that organizational crises exacerbate this interaction because they make social support by the team leader especially important. We tested these assumptions with objective performance data collected over a period of four years from 3263 financial consultants (325 teams) while controlling for the effects of relational demography. Results showed that in teams with strong faultlines, consultants' performance decreased to a lesser extent in crisis years if the consultants shared a subgroup with their team leader. Thus, faultlines had different effects on team members from different subgroups.

That’s not my place: The interacting effects of faultlines, subgroup size, and social competence on social loafing behaviour in work groups

Taking a social relations approach to team diversity, we propose that faultlines—hypothetical dividing lines that split a team into relatively homogeneous subgroups—impact the team members’ propensity to exhibit social loafing behaviour. We further propose that this individual-level reaction to the faultline structure of the team can differ among team members, depending on the size of their subgroup and on their individual social competence. We tested the assumptions with a sample of real teams working on an intellective task during which social loafing behaviour was video-coded. In partial support of the hypotheses, generalized mixed models revealed that social loafing behaviour was most common for team members who were part of a team with strong faultlines, who belonged to the larger subgroup in their team, and who exhibited low levels of social competence. The results therefore highlight the benefits of taking a multilevel approach to the effects of faultlines.

Utilizing the firm's resources: How TMT heterogeneity and resulting faultlines affect TMT tasks

While theory and evidence show that firms' competitive actions mediate the resource‐performance relationship, details of top managements' roles in shaping resource utilization choices have been underemphasized. We address this oversight by integrating top management team heterogeneity and any resulting faultline strength with the resource‐action‐performance model to investigate how TMT composition differentially affects the model's two linkages. Specifically, we argue that TMT heterogeneity positively affects the resource‐action linkage, yet negatively affects the action‐performance linkage. Moreover, when heterogeneity begets strong faultlines, all such positive effect is lost. Supportive evidence from the in‐vitro medical diagnostic substance manufacturing industry allows us to discuss how our findings contribute to upper echelons theory, as well as the emerging stream on resource utilization. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Downward Spiral of Organizational Decline and Top Management Team Demographic Faultlines

We argue that top management team (TMT) demographic faultlines accelerate the downward spiral of organizational decline by hampering information processing and deteriorating TMT functioning. That is, the first performance decline more likely leads to further decline when the TMT has strong faultlines. In addition, CEO power and organizational slack buffer but market complexity escalates the detrimental effects of strong TMT faultlines. Data on publicly listed firms in China provides support to these predictions.

In the Short Term We Divide, in the Long Term We Unite: Demographic Crisscrossing and the Effects of Faultlines on Subgroup Polarization

Do strong demographic faultlines breed opinion polarization in work teams? We integrate two theories that have been used to explain faultline effects. The first, the approach of Lau and Murnighan [Lau DC, Murnighan JK (1998) Demographic diversity and faultlines: The compositional dynamics of organizational groups. Acad. Management Rev. 23(2):325–340], suggests that in teams with strong faultlines the mechanisms of homophilous selection of interaction partners and persuasive influence cause subgroup polarization, defined as the split of the team into subgroups holding opposing opinions. The second, from sociological and anthropological traditions, emphasizes that crisscrossing actors bridge faultlines because they share demographic attributes with several subgroups. Demographically crisscrossing actors help to prevent polarization in social groups. We argue that Lau and Murnighan’s theory implicitly factors in the effects of crisscrossing actors. However, we show that the authors overlooked crucial implications of their theory because they did not consider crisscrossing actors explicitly. Most importantly, we demonstrate that demographic crisscrossing implies that even teams with strong faultlines will overcome polarization in the long run, although they might suffer from it in the short term. We develop and analyze a formal computational model of the opinion and network dynamics in work teams to show the consistency of our reasoning with Lau and Murnighans’ theory. The model also revealed another counterintuitive effect: strong faultlines lead to structures of interaction that make teams with strong faultlines faster in arriving at a stable consensus than teams with weak faultlines.

Team Performance in Multi-Team Systems: Faultlines and Team Boundaries

In this symposium we address how faultlines and team boundaries affect team processes and outcomes in multi-team systems – networks of interconnected teams. Multi-team systems (MTS) are part of business practices such as strategic alliances and mergers and acquisitions, however more research is needed to unravel the drivers of performance in MTS. Team faultlines are crucial determinants of team processes and outcomes, and are defined as hypothetical dividing lines that may split a group into subgroups based on team member attributes. Teams in MTS often have strong faultlines that affect team processes and outcomes, however how MTS characteristics affect team faultlines remains largely unaddressed. Moreover, prior studies have neglected that team members move within and between teams in MTS, affecting team boundaries and team faultlines. The presentations in this symposium therefore address how managerial ties, status differentials and leadership bridge faultlines within MTS. Additionally, the presentation...

How attitude certainty tempers the effects of faultlines in demographically diverse teams

Lau and Murnighan's faultline theory suggests that strong demographic faultlines can undermine cohesion in work teams. A strong faultline splits a team into internally homogeneous but mutually dissimilar subgroups based on demographic characteristics. Social influence processes within these subgroups then lead to the polarization of team members' attitudes along the divisions imposed by the faultline. However, faultline theory hitherto neglects effects of attitude certainty. Research shows that the certainty with which individuals hold their attitudes affects social influence processes. We extend theoretical faultline research by integrating attitude certainty. For this, we incorporate the interplay of the dynamics of attitude certainty and social influence into a formal model of demographic faultline effects developed by Flache and Mas. Computational experiments suggest a moderation effect. Demographic faultlines only affect team cohesion if attitude certainty is low. We discuss implications for future research.

Social Category Salience Moderates the Effect of Diversity Faultlines on Information Elaboration

Faultlines—hypothetical dividing lines splitting a group into homogeneous subgroups based on the distribution of demographic attributes—are frequently assumed to be detrimental to group outcomes because they operationalize social categorizations. However, a literature review indicates that this is not always the case. We argue that diversity faultlines and social categorizations are not necessarily the same and that the effect of diversity faultlines is moderated by perceived social categorizations. To test this proposition, we assigned 172 participants to groups of four. Participant gender, bogus personality feedback, seating position, and colored cards were employed to create two diversity faultline conditions (weak and strong faultline). Groups worked on the Survive in the Desert task, and their interactions were coded with the discussion coding system (DCS). Social categorizations were elicited using a newly developed measure that requires participants to specify subjectively perceived salient categories. Participants stated many social categories that were unrelated to surface-level characteristics frequently employed in diversity research. In line with our hypotheses, social category salience moderated the effect of faultline strength on elaboration. Elaboration was most intense in strong faultline groups that had low levels of category salience. Elaboration was positively related to performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Bridging faultlines in diverse teams

In studying teams at large companies in Europe and the United States, the authors found that diversity and complexity are becoming the rule. Diverse teams bring to bear a range of experiences and attitudes to tackle companies? hardest challenges. Paradoxically, however, the very nature of team diversity often creates conditions that reduce teams? innovative capacity. The authors observed many failures in collaboration and knowledge-sharing that resulted from faultlines ? subgroups or coalitions that emerge naturally within teams, typically along demographic lines such as age, gender and functional background. Yet the authors found that some teams were able to collaborate and share knowledge despite the presence of faultlines. A defining factor was the behavior of the team leader and, in particular, the extent to which the leader was task-oriented or relationship-oriented. Where it is likely strong faultlines will emerge, many leaders tend to encourage team members to come together. However, simple socializing can make people?s differences more apparent and cause faultlines to solidify. The authors recommend that leaders vary their leadership style according to how long a team has been together. The article outlines four steps for successful functioning of diverse teams. First, leaders should diagnose the likely extent of faultlines in a new team. (The article contains a survey for gauging this probability.) Next, leaders should focus on task orientation when a team is newly formed. They then should consider when a switch in leadership style would be most appropriate. Finally, leaders should build a relationship-oriented style. Switching from task orientation to relationship orientation will be successful only when a team has developed a clear protocol for communication and coordination and an established operational structure.

The Impact of Group Composition and Attitudes Towards Diversity on Anticipated Outcomes of Diversity in Groups

In two studies, students evaluated group pictures of workgroups of varying ethnic and gender composition with respect to anticipated affective and productive outcomes. The impact of level of diversity, faultlines and individual differences in diversity attitudes on anticipated outcomes were examined. Favorable level effects of diversity were particularly found for groups with weak faultlines and for productive outcomes of diversity. In general, outcomes of cross-categorized groups were anticipated as more favorable than outcomes of groups with strong faultlines. Also in line with expectations, attitudes towards diversity moderated the impact of diversity on anticipated group outcomes. Interestingly, attitudes towards diversity buffered against increasing levels of diversity and not so much against the presence of faultlines.

How to get the timing right. A computational model of the effects of the timing of contacts on team cohesion in demographically diverse teams

Lau and Murnighan's faultline theory explains negative effects of demographic diversity on team performance as consequence of strong demographic faultlines. If demographic differences between group members are correlated across various dimensions, the team is likely to show a subgroup that inhibits communication and effective collaboration between team members. Our paper proposes a rigorous formal and computational reconstruction of the theory. Our model integrates four elementary mechanisms of social interaction, homophily, heterophobia, social influence and rejection into a computational representation of the dynamics of both opinions and social relations in the team. Computational experiments demonstrate that the central claims of faultline theory are consistent with the model. We show furthermore that the model highlights a new structural condition that may give managers a handle to temper the negative effects of strong demographic faultlines. We call this condition the timing of contacts. Computational analyses reveal that negative effects of strong faultlines critically depend on who is when brought in contact with whom in the process of social interactions in the team. More specifically, we demonstrate that faultlines have hardly negative effects when teams are initially split into demographically homogeneous subteams that are merged only when a local consensus has developed.

Interactions Within Groups and Subgroups: The Effects of Demographic Faultlines

We investigated the effects of intragroup and cross-subgroup communications in an experimental field study on demographic faultlines. The results indicated that faultlines explained more variance in perceptions of team learning, psychological safety, satisfaction, and expected performance than single-attribute heterogeneity indexes. In addition, cross-subgroup work communications were effective for groups with weak faultlines but not for groups with strong faultlines. Overall, this study extends the original faultline model, documents the utility of the concept of faultlines, and identifies some of their effects on work group outcomes.

Cracks in Diversity Research: The Effects of Diversity Faultlines on Conflict and Performance

In this quasi-field study, we investigate the effects of diversity faultlines on the conflict experience, performance, and morale of 79 groups. This is one of the first studies to operationalize the construct of diversity-related faultlines (Lau and Murnighan 1998). One of the most important contributions of this research is that faultlines incorporate multiple characteristics of group members simultaneously rather than assessing just one demographic characteristic at a time as most past diversity research has done. We develop a measure to capture the complexity of the faultline construct and to examine the effects of various group diversity faultline profiles on group outcomes. Linear results with a limited range of data show that faultlines are negatively related to conflict and positively related to morale and performance. Supplemental analyses that take into account the unique characteristics of our dataset indicate curvilinear relationships between diversity faultlines and relationship conflict, process conflict, group morale, and group performance. Groups with either virtually no faultlines (very diverse members) or strong faultlines (split into 2 fairly homogeneous subgroups) had higher levels of conflict and lower levels of morale and performance than groups with medium faultlines. The results suggest a more complex relationship between diversity and group process and outcome variables than typically described in diversity research. A detailed discussion of the faultline measure we developed and the methodological issues associated with measuring and interpreting faultlines are reported.

A Field Study of Group Faultlines, Team Identity, Conflict, and Performance in Organizational Groups

We further the theoretical understanding of group faultlines (hypothetical lines that split a group into subgroups based on two or more demographic attributes; Lau & Murnighan, 1998) in demographically diverse organizations by also conceptualizing the distance of difference between the two subgroups. We create a faultline algorithm to capture not only how cleanly a group splits into subgroups (faultline strength) but also how far apart these subgroups are (faultline distance) on demographic differences (e.g., two members of age 20 are closer in age to two members of an opposing faultline of age 21 than of two members of age 71). To examine how group faultlines affect conflict and performance, we develop and test hypotheses in an organizational setting of 78 groups. We also investigate the moderating effects of team identity on the faultline-conflict link. The results show that groups with strong group faultlines (both high on faultline strength and distance) are more likely to have high levels of task, relationship, and process conflict. Furthermore, group faultlines are found to be detrimental to performance. Finally, a strong sense of team identity among group members minimizes the detrimental effects of group faultlines. Future research directions are presented.