Taking the bite out of culture: The impact of task structure and task type on overcoming impediments to cross‐cultural team performance

• Author: Soon Ang,Anat Rafaeli,Thomas Rockstuhl,Miriam Erez,Lee Leshem‐Calif,Rikki Nouri
• Published date: 01 August 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.1871
• Date: 01 August 2013

Taking the bite out of culture: The impact of task

structure and task type on overcoming

impediments to cross-cultural team performance

RIKKI NOURI

1

, MIRIAM EREZ

1

*, THOMAS ROCKSTUHL

2

, SOON ANG

2

,

LEE LESHEM-CALIF

3

AND ANAT RAFAELI

1

1

Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

2

Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

3

The Center for Economic & Social Research, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Summary Research on the effect of cultural diversity on team performance remains inconclusive. We propose to resolve

the competing predictions of the information/decision making versus the social categorization theories by

integrating two task-related theories, the situational strength theory and the circumplex model of group tasks.

We propose that high task specificity enables similar interpretations and shared understanding among team

members, which is needed for effective “execute”(convergent) tasks, is characterized by team cooperation and

interdependence. Low task specificity, in contrast, is beneficial for “generate”(creative) tasks, because it does

not place constraints on generating original ideas and does not require tight coordination among the team

members.We tested the effects of situational strengthand task type on the relationship between culturaldiversity

and team performance in two experiments with 86and 96 dyads in the first and secondexperiments, respectively.

In both experiments, heterogeneous (Israeli–Singaporean) and homogeneous dyads (Israeli–Israeli and

Singaporean–Singaporean) worked under low or high task specificity. In Study 1, dyads performed convergent

executiontasks, and in Study 2, they performedcreative idea-generation tasks. Theimpediment of multicultural-

ism was reducedin execute (convergent) tasksunder high task specificity and in generate(divergent) tasks under

low task specificity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons,Ltd.

Keywords: cultural diversity; task specificity; execute (convergent) task; generate (divergent) task; creativity

Intensifying globalization in all sectors means an increasing number of multicultural teams, yet whether team

members from different cultural backgrounds collaborate effectively with each other on numerous types of tasks

remains unanswered. The extant research literature on team diversity makes no conclusive inference about the effect

of team diversity, specifically cultural diversity, on team performance (Bledow, Frese, Anderson, Erez, & Farr,

2009). The information/decision-making approach suggests that the large and diversified pool of knowledge, skills,

and abilities available to culturally diverse teams enhances team performance (Easely, 2001; Van Knippenberg, De

Drue, & Homan, 2004). By contrast, social categorization theory (Tajfel, 1978; Turner, 1987) asserts that cultural

diversity hinders team performance because categorization of team members into in-groups and out-groups hampers

team processes (Huber & Lewis, 2010). The empirical evidence linking cultural diversity to team performance is

equivocal.A meta-analysis of 42 studiessummarizing the effects of culturaldiversity on team performancefound a null

effect but also showed that individual effect sizes range from .60 to .48 (Stahl, Maznevski, Voigt, & Jonsen, 2010).

These conflictingtheories and findingshint at the presence of undetected moderatorsof the relationship betweencultural

diversity and teamperformance, highlighting theimportance of gaining a deeper understanding of the conditions under

which cultural diversity predicts team performance (Van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007).

*Correspondence to: Miriam Erez, Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000,

Israel. E-mail: merez@ie.technion.ac.il

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 22 March 2012

Revised 5 February 2013, Accepted 23 April 2013

Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. 34, 739–763 (2013)

Published online 6 June 2013 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.1871

Special Issue Article

The objectives of this article are to explain and resolve the competing predictions of the information/decision-

making approach, versus the social categorization theory, which assert different relationship between cultural

diversity and team performance. To this end, we integrate two task-related theories, which together offer a promising

conceptual framework for explaining andresolving the inconsistency. Thefirst is the situational strength theory,which

proposes that strong situations such as specific and clear tasks dictate a clear and specific response (Mischel, 1977;

Parker & Ohly, 2008) and attenuate the effects of diverse personal characteristics (Meyer, Dalal, & Hermida, 2010)

and cultural background (Erez, 2010; Erez & Nouri, 2010) on behavioral outcomes.

The second is the task type theory, as reflected in McGrath’s (1984) circumplex model, which differentiates

between tasks along two di mensions—cognitive versus behavioral task demands and low versus high task

interdependence. For example, “execute”tasks, which require perceptual-motor coordination, represent the

interdependentbehavioral type, whereas“generate”tasks of idea generation,requiring only little coordination, represent

the cognitive low int erdependence type.

Integrating insights from both theories, we propose that strong situations conveyed by high task clarity and

specificity constitute an advantage for culturally diverse teams performing execute tasks, which require high

coordination and interdependence among team members to reach the expected behavioral outcomes. By contrast,

low task specificity benefits culturally diverse teams when performing generate tasks, which require them to generate

multiple diverse ideas without the constraints of high team interdependence and high team coordination. In the current

research, we view task specificity, and task type as potential moderators; thus, we designed two studies to test for the

moderating effect of task type and situational strength on the relationship between team cultural diversity and team

performance outcomes. Study 1 tested the moderating effect of task specificity on the relationship between team

cultural diversity and team performance in an execute task. Study 2 examined the same moderating effect of task

clarity and specificity on a generate task. The next section elaborates on the two moderators of situational strength

and task type.

Situational Strength

Person–situation interaction theories recognize the joint effect of the person and the situation on behavior (e.g.,

Bandura, 1986; Mischel, 1977). Mischel (1977) proposed that the dominance of personality versus situation on

individual behavior depends on the situational strength, which conveys the degree to which the situation constrains

variability in the expression of personality (Cooper & Withey, 2009; Meyer et al., 2010; Mischel, 1977). Weak

situations do not provideclear and specific cues for sense making and leave room for individual discretion, increasing

the variance in responses to the situation given by people with different personalities and cultural backgrounds

(Meyer et al., 2010; Mischel, 1973, 1977). Conversely, strong situations provide clear signals about what isexpected,

restricting the range of appropriate behaviors and leaving little room for individual discretion.

We propose that situational strength moderates the relationship between team cultural diversity and team

performance such that strong situations provide clear and specific cues that evoke similar responses in mem-

bers of different cultures. Under weak situations, cultural values—whicharerepresentedintheself—serve as

criteria for interpreting the meaning of the situation(Erez & Earley, 1993), resulting in different interpretations, that is,

cultural variability comes into play. Strong situations provide clear and specificsituational cues to all team members, no

matter their culturaldiversity, thereby reducing thevariance in members’responses. Hence,cultural diversity may have

a positive effecton generate task performance under weak situations, which allow culturallydiverse resources needed to

generate multiplesolutions to emerge. By contrast, culturaldiversity may have a negative effect on executetasks under

weak situations that require high coordination and convergence towards one correct solution.

The current research investigates the effect of situational strength in the form of task clarity and specificity on the

performance of culturally diverse teams involved in execute convergent tasks versus generate divergent tasks. Task

specificity is defined as the extent to which cues regarding work-related responsibilities or requirements are available

and easy to understand (Meyer et al., 2010).

740 R. NOURI ET AL.

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Organiz. Behav. 34, 739–763 (2013)

DOI: 10.1002/job