Decision comprehensiveness and team performance: The moderating role of perceived similarity

Salvador, Rommel O.; Alexander, Elizabeth A.; Bhappu, Anita

Abstract

Decision comprehensiveness is the extent to which members of a team systematically gather quantities of information and consider these in the process of making decisions (Frederickson & Mitchell, 1984). Empirical research indicates that under certain conditions, such as when the external environment in which a team is embedded is rapidly changing, a positive relationship between team decision comprehensiveness and performance exists (e.g., Atuahene-Gima and Li, 2004). That said, there has been scant research on the effect of more proximate team-level factors on this relationship. Given the increasingly diverse character of decision-making teams in the workplace (e.g., Jackson, May, & Whitney, 1995), and the more immediate significance of perceived (versus “objective”) similarity in shaping group processes and outcomes (e.g., Bodenhausen, 2010), we examine here the moderating influence of perceived socio-cultural similarity, the extent to which team members view themselves as having few surface-level, demographic differences (Zellmer-Bruhn, Maloney, Bhappu, & Salvador, 2008). Teams that are high, versus low, in perceived similarity are more likely to experience a reduction in common information bias, improving the quality of their decision- making by taking into account information most critical for successful team performance (Brodbeck, Kerschreiter, Mojzisch, & Schulz-Hardt, 2007). ur findings suggest that decision comprehensiveness positively relates to team performance, but only when perceived similarity among team members is low. Our findings suggest that decision comprehensiveness positively relates to team performance, but only when perceived similarity among team members is low. In investigating the role of these perceptions of similarity, we extend not only current models of the comprehensiveness-performance relationship among teams, but also more explicitly integrate the research on perceived similarity in teams with the literature on team decision-making.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Annual meeting of the American Psychological Association
• Start Date: Jul 31, 2013
• End Date: Aug 4, 2013
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: decision comprehensiveness, perceived similarity, team performance
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/929588
• Additional Information: Additional Information : [e-mail]; Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Honolulu, Hawaii, July 31 - August 4 2013