How Surface-Level and Deep-Level Faultlines Influence Team Performance through Subgroup Formation and Team Interaction Quality: A Meta-analytic Review

Abstract

Abstract This article develops a framework to test how surface-level and deep-level faultlines impact team performance through subgroup formation and team interaction quality. We test it with 96 empirical articles on team faultlines from 2002 to 2022, using meta-analytic techniques. Firstly, results suggest that subgroup formation and team interaction quality act as serial mediums through which surface-level and deep-level faultlines exert negative indirect effects on team performance. Secondly, moderator analyses reveal that increasing interaction time will mitigate the effects of surface-level faultlines but enhance the effects of deep-level faultlines. Finally, surface- and deep-level social faultlines and deep-level task faultlines are detrimental to team interaction quality, and these negative effects are mediated by subgroup formation. Surface-level task faultlines are beneficial to team interaction, and this positive effect does not work through subgroup formation.