• Katerina Bezrukova, Sherry M B Thatcher, Karen A Jehn, and Chester S Spell.
• Department of Psychology, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA. ybezrukova@scu.edu
• J Appl Psychol. 2012 Jan 1; 97 (1): 77-92.

AbstractBy integrating literature on group faultlines, organizational cultures, and value congruence, this research presents a framework that explains how cultural alignment across organizational levels may influence the relationship between faultlines and performance. The hypotheses were tested using representatively sampled multisource qualitative and quantitative data on 138 teams from a Fortune 500 company. The present findings demonstrate that although informational faultlines were detrimental for group performance, the negative relationship between faultlines and performance was reversed when cultures with a strong emphasis on results were aligned, was lessened when cultures with a weak emphasis on results were aligned, and remained negative when cultures were misaligned with respect to their results orientation. These findings show the importance of recognizing alignments not only within groups (group faultlines) but also outside groups (cultural alignments between the group and departments) when considering their implications for group performance.

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