Making use of difference: Diversity, debate, and decision comprehensiveness in top management teams

This study examined how top management team diversity variables and debate interacted to influence two measures of company financial performance. Furt her, it assessed the degree to which decision comprehensiveness mediated th ose interaction effects. Multi-informant data from the top management teams of 57 manufacturing companies revealed that more job-related types of dive rsity interacted with debate to influence financial performance, but a less job-related type (age diversity) did not. Decision comprehensiveness parti ally mediated those effects.