A Study of the Relationship Between Team Members' Personalities and Cultural Dimensions and Their Effects on Team Performance

Organization Development (OD) researchers today have many situations that demand their attention. In a global market, organizations demand more flexibility, better performance, and a truly global vision. In response increasing competition, OD professionals need to look deeper into how to optimize team performance with a global lens.;Recent studies of team dynamics have indicated that both team members' personality traits and cultural characteristics influence team performance. Other research has shown that diversities and disagreement of team members are the main factors that affect team performance. Scholars also found that certain conflicts originate from the compositions of a team, which can significantly affect team performance. Therefore, in order to help organizations form more effective teams, the current study has paid attention to the correlations among team performance, personalities, and Hofstede's cultural dimensions.;This empirical research studied whether team members' personalities and cultural characteristics influence their performance as a team in the US and China. It also investigated the correlations between the Big Five traits and Hofstede's cultural dimensions as well as the Big Five traits and Enneagram types. The results indicate (a) no significant correlation between the Big Five traits and team performance in both individual- and team-level analyses; (b) no significant correlation between Hofstede's cultural dimensions and team performance in individual-level analyses, and diverse correlations for Masculinity to team performance found in China and the US teams; and (c) significant team-performance differences for Enneagram type Three versus other types. Additional analysis between the Big Five and the Enneagram of Personality shows that Enneagram type Four has significantly higher Openness to experience than One and Three, and Five has significantly lower Agreeableness than Seven and Nine. Several correlations between the Big Five traits and Hofstede's cultural dimensions were also found. Comparisons between and discussions of the current findings and the literature were made.;The current study suggests that scholars and practitioners in related fields pay attention to differences in cultural contexts in addition to the most commonly used theoretical frameworks.