Diversity in top management teams and upper echelons of firms

Abstract

Research on top management team (TMT) diversity has grown over the past decade as organizations are increasingly recognizing the purported benefits of diverse perspectives. In synthesizing recent research, we review the current state of the top management team diversity literature to answer for questions: (1) What features of TMT contexts make diversity an important consideration? (2) What types of diversity are most influential to team and organizational outcomes? (3) What are the mechanisms through which TMT diversity influences functioning? and (4) How do contexts shape the relationship between TMT diversity and performance outcomes? Based on our review, we highlight the inherent complexities of conceptualizing, measuring, evaluating, and understanding top management team diversity.

Keywords: Diversity; Top management teams; Upper echelons.