Gender Diversity,age Diversity And Team Creativity:a Two-path Study Based On Self-presentation Theory

Team creativity is not only the key mean for organization survival and competitive advantage,but also the foundation and premise of organizational innovation ability.Hence,how to promote team creativity through effective team construction is not only a major practical issue for managers,but also a key theoretical project for scholars.The relationship between gender diversity,age diversity and team creativity has always been a hot topic in the scientific field,yet the conclusions are not consistent.In order to clarify the inconsistent findings,this study,examined the mechanism through and boundary conditions under which gender diversity and age diversity impact team creativity from a self-presentation theory perspective.The study is divided into three parts:The first part reviews the previous literature on gender diversity,age diversity,team passion,team information exchange,self-presentation theory and team creativity.First of all,I review the literature regarding the consequences of gender diversity and age diversity,the antecedents of team creativity and the underlying mechanism of team diversity on team creativity.Secondly,by integrating the previous literature,this paper discusses the limitations and shortcomings of previous research in terms of the relationship between gender diversity,age diversity and team creativity,and the potential causes of those inconsistent results.Finally,based on the self-presentation theory,this paper discusses the relationship between gender diversity,age diversity and team creativity,the mediating effect of team passion and information exchange,and the moderating effect of goal interdependence.Following the above rationale and reasoning,I develop the hypotheses and form the research model.In the second part,the matched data of 331 dyads of employees and their 73 leaders are collected to test the hypothesis.The results of hierarchical linear model analysis show that:(1)goal interdependence strengthens the positive effect of gender diversity on team passion,as well as the positive effect of age diversity on team information exchange.(2)goal interdependence augments the positive indirect effect of gender diversity on the team creativity through team passion,and the positive indirect effect of age diversity on the team creativity through information exchange.In the third part,on the basis of results,I summarize the main theoretical contributions,practical implications,limitations and future research directions.