Name: Yichen Tang 

Master’s Thesis Defense Meeting

Date: Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Time: 1pm

Location: via Teams  click here

Advisor: Christopher Wiese, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Thesis Committee Members:

Paul Verhaeghen, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Keaton Fletcher, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Christopher Wiese, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech) 

Title: Conceptualization and Assessment of the Home Workspace: A Person-Centered Approach  

Abstract: Functional diversity is the degree of heterogeneity in team members' professional domains or specialties. The unique advantage of functionally diverse teams lies in members possessing distinct knowledge that can be employed to accomplish tasks. However, the diverse perspectives brought forth by team members can act as a double-edged sword, leading to inconclusive research on the direct effect of functional diversity on team effectiveness. Consequently, this study conducted a meta-analytical review of 75 articles to examine the effect by considering performance and creativity as two indicators of team effectiveness. Furthermore, this research explored the boundary conditions that moderate the relationship between functional diversity and team effectiveness. These conditions include functional diversity conceptualizations (e.g., Dominant, Background, or Intrapersonal), sample type (e.g., student vs. adult employee, military vs. non-military), team characteristics (e.g., familiarity, team size), and task characteristics (e.g., complexity), and the study found a positive effect across all moderators. A supplementary analysis was performed to further scrutinize the conceptual distinctions of functional diversity identified by previous research. Ultimately, recommendations for enhancing multidisciplinary teams and directions for future research are discussed.