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TEAMS' FEMALE REPRESENTATION AND PERCEIVED POTENCY AS INPUTS TO TEAM OUTCOMES IN A PREDOMINANTLY MALE FIELD SETTING
Author(s) -
HIRSCHFELD ROBERT R.,
JORDAN MARK H.,
FEILD HUBERT S.,
GILES WILLIAM F.,
ARMENAKIS ACHILLES A.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
personnel psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.076
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1744-6570
pISSN - 0031-5826
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.00892.x
Subject(s) - teamwork , psychology , cohesion (chemistry) , perception , social psychology , congruence (geometry) , team composition , group cohesiveness , applied psychology , management , chemistry , organic chemistry , neuroscience , economics
We developed a team‐level temporal model and tested it with data from 92 newly formed teams in a naturalistic military setting where females were a distinct minority in all teams. Contrary to what is posited by theory on customary perceptions of females' capabilities and gender‐role congruence, a higher female proportion within teams did not adversely influence teams' early perceived potency, later social cohesion, or observers' assessments of teamwork. Consistent with theory regarding gender and abilities, however, a higher female proportion within teams contributed to better team problem solving but led to slightly worse team results on physically demanding tasks. In addition, teams' early perceived potency contributed positively to early task proficiency and later social cohesion. Furthermore, teams' social cohesion contributed positively to externally observed teamwork while controlling for task proficiency. We discuss implications of these findings for theory and practice.