TMT Diversity Outcomes Under Environmental Contexts: A Review of Literature and Research Agenda

Abstract

The construct of Top Management Team (TMT) has received a significant attention in the strategic management scholarship due to the espoused role that TMT members are expected to play in providing direction to their organizations. In this role, they are expected to make strategic choices that optimize the opportunities availed by the rapidly changing environments. The theoretical underpinning for TMT and the extant empirical work have demonstrated a number of issues that call for further examination of the extant literature. In this paper, the authors explore the conceptual, theoretical and empirical literatures on TMT Diversity to establish the current state that accounts for the identified issues and identify the emerging knowledge gaps that set an agenda for future research. The paper identifies the various forms of TMT Diversity, the intermediate and ultimate outcomes as well as the potential influence of these outcomes by the aspects of industry velocity in which firms operate. Several theories that complement the role of the upper echelons theory are discussed and the constructs they contribute to in explaining TMT Diversity outcomes identified. The paper proposes a theoretical model for explaining the emerging phenomenon from the deployment of TMT Diversity and makes several propositions. The paper calls on future research to consider the proposed framework for adoption in empirical work.