Gender Diversity and Team Identification

Many project-based organizations within the IT sector suffer from an underrepresentation of women (Chasserio & Legault, 2010, ). Although this underrepresentation has primarily been studied in light of undesirable consequences for women (cf. Lindgren & Packendorff, 2006), we argue that this skewed gender distribution is directly hurting both women and men. As individuals within project-based organizations are often required to work together in project teams, women and men are increasingly dependent on each other. Therefore, the underrepresentation of women is also likely to affect men. We focus in this present paper on the influence of gender diversity on men's team identification. Individuals’ team identification is an important predictor of individuals’ commitment, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior (Johnson, Morgeson, & Hekman, 2012). We study the influence of gender diversity on individuals’ team identification within project teams that are – in numbers – dominated by men. The results of this study suggest that men identify less with their team when one of the project members is a woman, and that this negative influence is stronger when teams are smaller. The negative influence of gender diversity on men's team identification is, however, only present when men are less satisfied with the performance of their team. Building on black sheep effect theory, we argue that men that are less satisfied with their team are likely to try to protect their self-identity by lowering their team identification.