NOVAFRICA Working Paper: Team size and diversity
A new working paper has been added to the NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series. Written by Brais Álvarez Pereira, Shan Aman-Rana and Alexia Delfino this paper analyses the relationship of performance with team diversity and size.
Title:
Team size and diversity
Authors:
Brais Álvarez Pereira (Nova School of Business and Economics, BELAB and NOVAFRICA)
Shan Aman-Rana (University of Virginia)
Alexia Delfino (Bocconi University)
Abstract:
We analyse the relationship of performance with team diversity and size. We first propose a model with knowledge spillovers in production, which predicts that the effect of team diversity on individual performance increases with team size. We experimentally test the model by randomly assigning students to solve knowledge questions in teams of different sizes, with or without diversity. Our main finding is that the benefit of diversity is increasing in team size. We
further show that such benefit is heterogeneous depending on students’ gender and the gender composition of teams. This has implications for how organizations can design their teams to maximize knowledge flows and performance.
Download this Working Paper here.
