When Member Homogeneity is Needed in Work Teams

Abstract

A meta-analytic integration of 57 effect sizes from 13 studies (567 teams, 2,258 participants) was performed to determine if groups that are homogeneous with respect to gender, ability level, and personality achieve higher levels of performance than teams that are heterogeneous on these attributes. Although individual studies often show marked differences between homogeneous and heterogeneous groups, the results of this integration show the combined effect sizes of these studies to be small, though not significant, in favor of heterogeneous groups. It appears that the significant effects found in many of the included studies can be attributed to the type and difficulty of the task used in the investigation. Implications for team construction are discussed.