Team Climate and Productivity for Similar Majors Versus Mixed Majors

Abstract

Teamwork and interpersonal communication are indispensable skills for business workers, and most companies are promoting diversity in teams to gain a competitive edge. Although findings suggest that diversity may not be as valuable as it seems for most teams, business workers need to manage diversity successfully. Therefore, the present authors tried to determine whether teams of business students with similar majors held perceptions about issues including conflict, leadership, and friendship that differed from those of mixed majors. Analyses of variance indicated that teams with similar majors expressed their ideas more freely and developed friendships more easily than did teams of mixed majors.