Title: Openness towards language differences and cultural differences in multicultural teams: how do they interact?

Authors: Jakob Lauring; Christina L. Butler; Minna Paunova; Timur Uman; Lena Zander

Addresses: Department of Management, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8210, Denmark ' Department of Management, Kingston Business School, London, UK ' Management, Society and Communication, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg 2000, Copenhagen, Denmark ' Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden ' Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

Abstract: In this paper, we address how different types of positive attitudes towards international diversity among team members can influence team outcomes. Our study explores whether openness to language diversity could contribute to the effect of openness to value diversity becoming more salient. Data was collected from 1085 team leaders of highly globalised academic research teams in the Nordic region. The results show a significant and positive effect of openness to different cultural values on team outcomes. Furthermore, in teams rated more open to language diversity, the impact of openness to value diversity on team performance is enhanced. Effects of different types of diversity attitudes have been assessed in extant literature. No prior studies, however, have focused on the interaction between the different types of diversity attitudes. This is an important omission because one type of diversity attitudes could function as a boundary condition for other types of diversity attitudes.

Keywords: team leader; multicultural teams; team creativity; team performance; openness to language diversity; openness to value diversity.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2024.140297

European Journal of International Management, 2024 Vol.24 No.1, pp.1 - 24

Received: 11 Dec 2019
Accepted: 12 May 2020
Published online: 02 Aug 2024 *

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