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We examined whether team conflict affects top management team (TMT) creativity, and if team climate moderates this relationship. Multiple regression analysis results obtained with 684 executives in 71 TMTs showed that cognitive conflict had a significant positive impact and emotional
conflict had a significant negative impact on TMT creativity. In addition, team climate positively regulated the impact of cognitive conflict on TMT creativity and negatively regulated the impact of emotional conflict on TMT creativity. Theoretical and practical implications, including ways
for enterprises to strengthen team building and enhance TMT creativity, are discussed.

This article presents a psychoanalytically informed diagnosis of top management team (TMT) dysfunction during TMT training in a public sector organization. Outdoor management development exercises and the psychodynamics of family groups increased the psychological depth of a training intervention, eliciting dysfunctional behavior and facilitating diagnosis based on Bion's theory of groups. Dysfunctional basic assumption behavior prohibited the group from effectively accomplishing the task of the work group. Implications for trainers and consultants are discussed.

Cultural intelligence is one of the most widely researched topics in international business literature. However, to date, only cross-national differences have been examined. This research examines the unexplored relationship between top management teams' (TMT) regional diversity and emerging market firms' internationalization. Employing the cultural intelligence theory, we introduce a significant dimension of TMT diversity—regional diversity. Based on a sample of 542 firms, our results indicate that diversity in the regional family background of TMT and their work experience are positively associated with the internationalization of these firms. Furthermore, this relationship is positively moderated by the international experience of the TMT. Our findings offer several managerial and academic implications.

Empirical research investigating the impact of top management team (TMT) diversity on executives' decision making has produced inconclusive results. To synthesize and aggregate the results on the diversity-performance link, a meta-regression analysis (MRA) is conducted. It integrates more than 200 estimates from 53 empirical studies investigating TMT diversity and its impact on the quality of executives' decision making as reflected in corporate performance. The analysis contributes to the literature by theoretically discussing and empirically examining the effects of TMT diversity on corporate performance. Our results do not show a link between TMT diversity and performance but provide evidence for publication bias. Thus, the findings raise doubts on the impact of TMT diversity on performance.

Using the theories of social learning, social exchange, and information exchange, we proposed a theoretical model to explain the relationships of learning, trust, and creativity in top management teams (TMT), and introduced TMT reflexivity as a moderator of these relationships. Multiple
regression analyses of data obtained from 594 executives in 54 TMTs revealed that team learning had a significant positive impact on TMT creativity, that team trust had a partial mediating effect in the relationship between team learning and TMT creativity, and that TMT reflexivity enhanced
the positive influence of team learning on team trust. Our findings reveal the inherent relationships among team learning, team trust, team reflexivity, and TMT creativity, and can provide scientific guidance to strengthen TMT construction, team learning, and team reflexive practice.

This article reports partial results of an eight-year field study of the Top Management Teams (TMTs) of a global multidivisional financial services corporation and compares those results with large-sample work in the TMT literature. In particular, it investigates the operationalization of TMT cognitive diversity by the proxies of age, team tenure, industry experience, and functional background heterogeneity most often used in statistical work, and compares those operationalizations with cognitive diversity itself. In addition to highlighting which proxies seemed to most closely approximate cognitive diversity and why, it demonstrates the confounding impact of power on all operationalizations. A comparison of the field results with three representative studies with respect to the operationalization of the dependent variables of diversification, innovation, and performance helps to explain why previous TMT heterogeneity research has often produced inconsistent results or nonfindings. It offers some suggestions that should improve the robustness of statistical research and demonstrates the reciprocal usefulness of case and large-sample research.

This study provides insight about the process of top management teams' (TMTs') sensemaking about leadership of middle managers—a process that has so far been neglected by researchers. In a longitudinal case study design, the authors analyzed observational data from 23 TMT meetings and transcripts from interviews with TMT members. Results indicate that TMT sensemaking consisted of images of middle managers, the TMT self-image, and reflection on action and action planning. Furthermore, the importance of TMT unity in actions toward middle managers is highlighted as an important aspect of TMT leadership. It is suggested to incorporate TMT sensemaking about leadership, as well as actual leadership actions toward middle managers, as processes for explaining how TMT composition influences organizational performance.

Purpose– The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of two categories of conflict antecedents – input and behavior antecedents – on the level of relationship conflict (RC) in top management teams (TMTs). The authors apply a process view to conflict, and consider that the effect of the input antecedents on RC may be mediated by a behavioral antecedent: behavioral integration.Design/methodology/approach– Using a survey instrument, multi-informant data were collected from 64 TMTs. An aggregation and measurement analysis was performed. To test the hypotheses of mediation, bootstrapping procedures were used.Findings– The results show that the effects of team tenure, intragroup trust and value consensus on relationship conflict are mediated by behavioral integration. However, TMT size does not affect relationship conflict – either directly or indirectly – through behavioral integration.Research limitations/implications– It is concluded that encouraging intragroup trust and value consensus among TMT members facilitates the integrated behavior of the team. This behavioral integration may allow conflict to be constructive. Therefore, firms should make an effort to encourage this psychological context.Originality/value– Previous research about the antecedents of RC in the field of TMTs is inconclusive. Additionally, a new approach to conflict antecedents is considered, to establish a direct and independent relationship between different categories of antecedents and TMT conflict. A relationship of interdependence is considered between different types of antecedents and their effects on RC.

This study investigates the relationship of top management team (TMT) diversity with performance of Christian churches, a particular type of nonprofit and voluntary organization. Performance measures were based on applying the balanced scorecard to the church setting. Within a sample of 82 churches from a single denomination, the authors found that greater diversity in the spiritual maturity and relationships of TMT members with the senior pastor was positively related with growth in church attendance. TMT diversity in age was positively related with Sunday school attendance. Surprisingly, diversity in TMT attitudes and tenure were positively related with efficiency of internal processes. Greater diversity in tenure in the TMT was negatively related with growth in church revenues. The findings suggest that diversity in the church TMT's may pay off in organizational growth, increased constituent learning, and better operating efficiency, but it may have negative impacts on growth in revenues. The findings related to efficiency suggest that TMT diversity may have different effects within nonprofit settings than it does within commercial business organizations.

The call for more extensive research regarding the role of processes within top management teams (TMTs) in organizational functioning is addressed in this study. The focus is on the service sector, which according to recent estimations accounts for more than 60% of the total economic activity in most Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries and examines the relationship between TMT behavioral integration and multiple performance measures of service organizations. Results from survey data of TMTs from 96 organizations show that TMT behavioral integration is positively associated with both human resource performance and economic performance. The relationship between TMT behavioral integration and service quality and development was only marginally significant.