Biculturalism, Team Performance, and Cultural-faultline Bridges

This conceptual paper focuses on the relationship between biculturalism and team performance. Building on Transactive Memory Theory, I argue that bicultural team members have a latent potential to enhance the transactive memory systems and performance of their teams. However, I propose that this potential is only fully realized when the characteristics of the individual and team are synchronized. More specifically, I argue that biculturals may have a different impact on culturally homogenous teams, culturally diverse teams, and teams characterized by a deep cultural faultline, depending on whether the biculturals share neither, one, or both of their cultures with other members of the team. In order to integrate these ideas, I develop a dynamic, multi-level theoretical model that delineates the relationships in question.