Factors Influencing the Performance of Quality Improvement Teams

We examine the effect of personality heterogeneity on oral vs. written task performance using data collected from 59 process improvement teams (comprising 267 individuals). As predicted, relationships differed depending on the task performed. Higher variability on agreeableness and neuroticism resulted in lower, whereas higher variability on extraversion resulted in higher oral presentation scores. Teams with higher mean cognitive ability and conscientiousness scored better, while teams with higher mean extraversion scored lower on written reports. Whereas mean aggregation of team composition variables resulted in significant effects for written performance, aggregation based primarily on variability resulted in significant effects for oral performance.