COGNITIVE DIVERSITY AT THE STRATEGIC APEX: ASSESSING EVIDENCE ON THE VALUE OF DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AND IDEAS AMONG SENIOR LEADERS

Diverse perspectives and ideas among senior leaders (top management teams and boards of directors) might generate substantial value for organizations. In theory, such diversity could provide a foundation for creative insights, innovative strategies, and strong organizational performance. Unfortunately, empirical research on these and other possible outcomes has generated a complex array of confusing findings. Our systematic review, the first to consider all types of relevant studies, attempts to make sense of the complicated landscape. On the negative side of the coin, the review highlights unsolved theoretical puzzles, severely fragmented empirical studies, and methodological conundrums. As a result, it calls into question several widespread assumptions and practices. On the positive side of the coin, our work surfaces some important pockets of consistency in existing empirical findings, mostly driven by studies using direct measures of cognitive diversity among senior leaders rather than demographic proxies. Our recommendations for the future include dramatically increasing qualitative research to move beyond a powerful deductive straightjacket that seems to exist. We also recommend taking a finer-grained approach through a substantial narrowing of quantitative research in the near term to better capture and understand key concepts, measures, and boundary conditions.