Influence of Individual Values Dissimilarity in the Outcome of top Management Teams: a study in a management lab

Resumen

Several studies relate organizational outcomes
to the performance of top management teams
(TMT). Some of these studies suggest that
the process of strategic choice is influenced by
the cognitive background and values of the
executives in those teams, and have focused on
the composition of TMT, using demographic
variables as proxies for deep-level characteristics.
The aim of this descriptive and exploratory
study was to verify directly the influence of
deep-level characteristics – the dissimilarities of
TMT members’ individual values – on the team
outcomes. This research was carried out using a
quantitative method within a public university
management lab environment located in the
city of São Paulo, applying two value surveys
validated in Brazil on TMT composed of Business
Management and Accounting undergraduates
submitted to a business game situation, resulting
in a non-probabilistic sample formed of 32 teams
comprising 186 students with valid responses.
Through multiple linear regression technique,
two statistically significant regression models
were found. It was found that the improved
performance of TMT occurs when members differ
in the importance assigned to values related to
openness to change and have similar appreciation
of values related to rules and to security in life
(conservation values ) and the pursuit of power
(prestige), giving evidence that this can occur
not only in a laboratory environment, but also in
the business environment, where time pressures
and competition are even more severe and,
therefore, more subject to deep-level subjective
characteristics.

Keywords: Personal values. Work values.
Top management teams. Team outcomes.
Management lab.