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INTRODUCTION
Over the past few decades, a substantial body of research has been undertaken to examine the relationship between cultural diversity and team outcomes. This research has produced mixed, and often contradictory, results. Our goals in this study were to take stock of and synthesize the findings from previous research, to reconcile conflicting perspectives and past results, and to propose an agenda for the next stage of research in this field.
Most qualitative reviews of the field of diversity look at all dimensions of diversity, including gender, age, and function, as well as culture and ethnicity. These reviews conclude that studies' results are inconsistent with each other (e.g., Harrison, Price, & Bell, 1998; Joshi & Roh, 2007; Kirkman, Tesluk, & Rosen, 2004). For example, there are significant positive correlations between diversity and performance in some studies (e.g., Earley & Mosakowski, 2000; McLeod, Lobel, & Cox, 1996; Thomas, Ravlin, & Wallace, 1996), contrasted by significant negative correlations in others (e.g., Jehn & Mannix, 2001; Kirkman et al., 2004; Thomas, 1999; Watson, Kumar, & Michaelsen, 1993). Meta-analyses have found no overall relationship between diversity and performance (Bowers, Pharmer, & Salas, 2000; Webber & Donahue, 2001), or a small negative effect (Stewart, 2006).
Although the effects of diversity in teams have typically been explained in terms of potential mediators, the actual evidence for the input-process-output linkage is not strong (e.g., Jackson, Joshi, & Erhardt, 2003; Mannix & Neale, 2005). Contextual variables probably moderate the relationship between diversity and team performance (Bell, 2007; Joshi & Roh, 2009). However, there is little theoretical clarity concerning how moderators influence the effects of diversity on team processes and outcomes; and moderators have not been examined systematically across studies (Jackson et al., 2003).
Most studies assume that all aspects of differences among people affect groups in the same way. Although there are clearly some parallels among different diversity sources (Van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007), there is evidence that different types of diversity may influence team outcomes in different ways (Horwitz & Horwitz, 2007). Cultural diversity, in particular, may affect teams differently from other diversity sources (Lane, Maznevski, DiStefano, & Dietz, 2009; Lane, Maznevski, Mendenhall, & McNett, 2004). Cultural differences are often below the level of consciousness, so some of their effects may not...