The Mechanism Of Heterogeneity Affecting Team Performance In University Scientific Research Teams

An essential trend of modern scientific and technological development is the interpenetration,intersection and integration of diverse disciplines.The major manifestation of interdisciplinary intersection lies in the creation of a large number of interdisciplinary disciplines,the emergence of cross-study institutions and the change of academic research organization form.The concept of “working team” has been gradually introduced to the realm of scientific research,and becomes the major organizational model of major scientific studies.Building heterogeneous scientific research teams can facilitate knowledge fusion and collision of ideas within a team,complement each other's advantages and promote mutual collaboration between members.Although heterogeneity within a team can bring powerful advantages for the integration of knowledge and academic innovation,it can also lead to potential risks including knowledge fracture,tensions among team members,and declined cohesion power.Moreover,new challenges have arisen regarding the management of research teams in colleges and universities under national innovative strategies.More researches have to be conducted on and more attention should be given to heterogeneous research teams,the management of which needs to be guided by more specialized theories.At the same time,theoretically basis for the process of influence of team heterogeneity over team performance has not been efficiently demonstrated.And the “black box” between heterogeneity and team performance has not yet been completely revealed.With research teams in colleges and universities as the research subject,the paper aims to unveil the mechanism for the influence of heterogeneity over team performance,and provide guidance for optimizing the management of heterogeneous research teams and improving team performance.Therefore,this paper has certain theoretical and practical significance.Focusing on optimizing the management of heterogeneous research teams,giving full play to the positive influence and inhibiting negative influence of team heterogeneity,as well as enhancing team performance of heterogeneous teams,this paper takes a thorough study on three questions: 1.Validating the relationship between team heterogeneity and team performance under specific environment,so as to answer the question about whether team heterogeneity has effect on team performance;2.Revealing the mechanism for the influence of team heterogeneity over team performance,so as to answer the question about how team heterogeneity impacts team performance;3.Proposing strategies for improving the management of heterogeneous teams,so as to answer the question about how to improve team performance.Around the above problems,this paper combines case studies with empirical studies to explain the mechanism for the influence of team heterogeneity over team performance.Typical heterogeneous teams in colleges and universities were selected as target cases in the case studies.Focusing on the determination of the dimensions and demonstrations of heterogeneity,team conflicts,attitudes toward heterogeneity,conflict norms and other research variables,the paper preliminarily analyzed the process of heterogeneity's impact on team performance,so as to provide preliminary theoretical proposition and empirical explanation.In the empirical study of this paper,on the basis of a literature review and case studies,a mechanism model for the influence of heterogeneity over team performance was constructed.Data was collected through questionnaires,and multiple analytical methods were adopted to validate the research hypotheses.Through the revealing of the above mentioned mechanism,the following conclusions were made in this paper: 1.The heterogeneity of research teams in university has double-edged-sword effect on team performance;2.Team conflicts showed significant “mixed” effect on team performance;3.Team conflicts have mediating effect on the relationship between team heterogeneity and team performance;4.This paper partly verified the moderating effect of the attitudes towards heterogeneity on the relationship between team heterogeneity and team performance as well as the moderating effect of conflict norms on team conflicts and team performance.The theoretical innovation of this paper is the D-C-P model for the study of validating the relationship between team heterogeneity and team performance under specific cultural background and team attributes,so as to show the local and specialized feature of this study;a mechanism of heterogeneity affecting team performance was constructed to demonstrate the influence of regulating variables such as attitudes toward heterogeneity and conflict norms,which attempts to improve the traditional D-C-P research model.This paper also revealed the regulating role of attitudes toward heterogeneity and conflict norms on team performance,so as to provide a theoretical basis for optimizing the management of heterogeneous teams.On this basis,the paper offers suggestions for optimizing the management of heterogeneous research teams and improving team performance in colleges and universities.Thus,this paper can serve as a guide for the management and practice of heterogeneous research teams.This paper contains 17 figures,66 tables and 255 references.