Who Defers to Whom and Why? Dual Pathways Linking Demographic Differences and Dyadic Deference to Team Effectiveness

Funding for this research was provided by a National Science Foundation Grant (#1307353). We thank the editor Gerry George and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback and comments. We are also extremely grateful to Corrine Bendersky, Stuart Bunderson, Michelle Duguid, and seminar participants (ORG) at Penn State for their guidance on previous versions of this paper. ABSTRACT We develop and test predictions about how demographic differences influence dyadic deference in multidisciplinary research teams and how differential patterns of dyadic deference emerge to shape team-level effectiveness. We propose a dual pathway model, which recognizes that two distinct mechanisms – task contributions and social affinity – account for how team members' demographic attributes contribute to deference. And, we propose that the extent to which these different mechanisms are prevalent in a team has implications for the team's research productivity; deference based on social affinity detracts from and deference based on task contributions enhances productivity. Using longitudinal data from a sample of 55 multidisciplinary research teams comprising 619 scientists, we found general support for our conceptual model. Our findings underscore the importance of accounting for multiple interpersonal mechanisms to understand the complex, multilevel nature of deference in teams. Who defers to whom and why? ! 3! " Throughout my twenty-year career, I have put together many research groups…brought together physicists, electrical engineers, biologists…always I do my best to bring together people who are the most competent and skilled – the brightest of them…yet I find that the dynamic that unfolds in my group is difficult to predict beforehand…sometimes a group can be amazingly productive and sometimes things just come apart even with the best people…What predicts the success of my team? I wish I knew the answer to that question. "-Interview excerpt, Bio-Photonics Laboratory Leader ! In teams performing complex mutually interdependent tasks, a fundamental process by which team members gain access to and capitalize on one another's expertise is deference – yielding to one another's opinions, beliefs, and decisions in the course of team work (Anderson, Willer, Kilduff, & Brown, 2012). When one team member defers to another who possesses the relevant skills needed for a given problem, project, or set of goals, the team is apt to combine diverse knowledge bases in effective ways (Bunderson, 2003). For example, in a research team working to develop cutting-edge laser technology to detect cancerous cells, a team member specializing in the study of …