Department of Management, Business School, The Chinese U. of Hong Kong,HK, Hong Kong
Multiple gender composition in top management teams is increasingly recognized as a crucial indicator of organizational inclusiveness, fostering group teamwork and contributing to corporate development. However, our observations regarding the impact of gender composition in leadership teams present a paradox. On one side, this diversity can lead to a more balanced and inclusive decision-making process, reflecting a wider range of perspectives and experiences. Contrastingly, multiple gender composition can can create gender faultlines, leading to divisions and conflicts within the team. This study resolves this puzzle by positing that the impact of multiple gender composition in teams is a structural issue. We study the concept of gender composition from two angles: the macro-outcomes at the structural level, the diversity perspective, and the micro features of these structures, the faultline perspective. We posit that multiple gender composition in executive teams has a double-edged sword effect. While gender diversity promotes the formation of a cooperative team culture, gender faultline within these teams can hinder it. The study further finds that In a liberal-leaning social ideology, feminine traits in executive teams are more valued and effective, and men are more inclined to break gender behavior stereotypes. This can enhance the positive traits associated with feminine leadership, amplifying the beneficial impact of gender diversity on the cooperative climate. Utilizing a machine-learning-based topic modeling technique on manually collected texts from corporate surplus conference calls of S&P 1500 firms in the US, we found support for our theory.