When does gender diversity enhance team performance? The dual need for transformational leadership and team tenure

Teams in organizations are becoming more gender diverse as women continue to participate more in the workforce than ever before. Prior theory and research indicate that the characteristics of the team influence whether gender diversity in a team is an asset or a detriment. As such, this research explores a contingency model of the relation between gender diversity and team performance and looks to understand conditions that make this relation positive or negative. Specifically, we examine how leader vision communication (i.e., visionary leadership) affects the relation between gender diversity and team performance. Results from a sample of 595 full-time employees across 106 teams in China indicate that leader vision communication moderates the relation between gender diversity and team performance such that when leader vision communication is low gender diversity decreases team performance and when leader vision communication is high gender diversity has no significant relation with team performance. We also test whether team tenure changes this relationship. Our results suggest that gender diversity improves team performance when both leader vision communication and team tenure are high. The findings in our sample demonstrate that gender diversity can help teams enhance performance, but only when the conditions are right for gender-diverse teams to flourish.