Abstract
This study investigates an additive multiple moderation model of the relationship between national diversity and task conflict in global virtual teams moderated by English skills and openness to linguistic diversity. Data were collected from 283 teams working on a project to develop recommendations for companies considering new international market entry. We find that greater team national diversity is associated with lower levels of task conflict when teams exhibit high levels of openness to linguistic diversity and high team English skills, but the relationship is reversed in teams where openness to linguistic diversity and team English skills are low. These findings add new depth to the relationship between national diversity and conflict in the context of global virtual teams by exploring both language skills and attitudes toward language differences. This study is one of the first to indicate that while both skills and attitudes are important in reducing the potential for conflict, a more accepting attitude toward linguistic differences is more important to reducing task conflict as team diversity increases than is common language proficiency.
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Stephens, R., Dong, L., Soares, A.M. (2021). The Impact of National Diversity on Task Conflict in Global Virtual Teams: The Moderating Effect of Language Factors. In: Jallouli, R., Bach Tobji, M.A., Mcheick, H., Piho, G. (eds) Digital Economy. Emerging Technologies and Business Innovation. ICDEc 2021. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 431. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92909-1_4
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