How Does the Gender Composition Affect Team Performance?
Final Report Abstract
Using an online experiment, the study examined how gender composition affects intra-team social interaction and team performance. Data were collected on a total of 342 teams, each with four members. The design included all-male, all-female, and mixed-gender teams (each with two women and two men). The analysis of the collected data shows that all-male teams perform significantly better than mixed-gender and all-female teams. These performance differences are accompanied by marked differences in intra-team communication. All-male teams communicate more than teams with alternative gender compositions. At the individual level, there are also substantial differences between women and men. Men communicate significantly more in mixed-gender teams than when they work in all-male teams. Women display the opposite pattern: they communicate significantly less in mixed-gender teams than when they work in all-female teams. As a result, the communication in mixed-gender teams is quantitatively dominated by the male members. This dominance sometimes takes extreme forms that have not been previously described in the literature. For example, men with below-average abilities contribute significantly more to team communication than highly capable women. Furthermore, the experience of working in a mixed-gender team affects women and men differently. While women are subsequently less willing to cooperate in a mixedgender team, this willingness increases among men. Overall, the project results indicate that mixed-gender teams tend to exhibit highly asymmetric communication to the disadvantage of the involved women.
Publications
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Who Does the Talking Here? The Impact of Gender Composition on Team Interactions, CESifo Working Papers No. 10550.
David Hardt, Lea Mayer & Johannes Rincke
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Who Does the Talking Here? The Impact of Gender Composition on Team Interactions. Management Science, 71(5), 4131-4152.
Hardt, David; Mayer, Lea & Rincke, Johannes
