The Power of Diversity : An Evaluation of Diversity in Decision-Making Processes of Top Management Teams

Abstract: Due to the high internationalisation of companies, the ongoing discussion about gender-equality and the increasing migration in Europe, diversity is a highly contemporary issue. Our thesis aims at examining the effect of diversity on decision-making processes in Top Management Teams (TMT).For our research, we conducted interviews among top managers in Germany to investigate the attitude of current leaders towards diversity at the upper echelon. Furthermore, we conducted an online survey among members of Generation Y (Millennials), the future leaders. Our aim was to make predictions about the future development of diversity in TMTs.We found that functional, personality and value diversity currently are the predominant dimensions. While important value differences are seen as a negative type of diversity, the other dimensions are mostly evaluated as positive. Functional diversity is by far the most appreciated type. Millennials’ attitude widely conforms to these findings.