An experimental study on the effect of team’s communication pattern on relationship between gender diversity and team cooperation

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of communication network on the relationship between gender diversity and perceived team cooperation. Thereby, communication pattern is classified with centralized and decentralized communication according to the level of openness and flexibility of communication flow among group members. We hypothesized that homogeneous group would cooperate better in decentralized communication network, while heterogeneous group would more cooperate and communicate in centralized communication pattern. Two group decision making exercises were conducted to test our hypotheses. Total 273 college students in three different universities participated in this study. The first experiment was designed to measure group’s attitude and behavior in neutral condition. The second part was to assess the effects of different communication pattern on relationship between gender diversity and group behavior. Groups were divided into two categories, named “decentralized communication” and “centralized communication.” All groups were assigned with a same group task, but were ordered to follow different communication rules depending on which category they belong to. Two-dependent samples t-test was conducted to measure the treatment effect. According to the result, communication pattern significantly affected the relationship between gender diversity and cooperation. Then ANOVA test was used to compare any differences between homogeneous and heterogeneous group. Results showed that both female- and male homogeneous group cooperated better in decentralized communication environment. Different from hypothesis, heterogeneous group also cooperated better in decentralized communication setting. Even though the interaction between gender diversity and communication pattern is not salient, results of the present study proved the effects of organization specific communication pattern on diversity group’s work-related behavior.