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INTRODUCTION
1. The necessity of the project
The team work model has some inherent advantages, such as: promoting
cooperation, mutual understanding and support among team members, thus,
coming up with feasible solutions. Many researchers in this sector have
indicated that team work model is the type of organizational structure that suits
many businesses, if operating this model properly, it will bring productivity and
outstanding work results. In fact, team work gives the individual's productivity
and results far better than the individual's average productivity and results when
working alone (Katzenbach, 1993).
In the past few years, Information Technology (IT) in Vietnam has become one
of the industries which are most capable of integrating into and competing with
other countries in the world. Therefore, finding effective solutions to promote
the role of IT as well as improving the performance of IT enterprises is also
indispensable. The fact that the model of team work is quite suitable in the IT
field because this is a complex and challenging task that often requires the
cooperation of many people who have a lot of knowledge, experience and, in
particular, the peculiarity of this area is difficult to develop standardized
procedures for performing tasks (Noll, 2002; Jiang, 2003). One factor
influencing teamwork currently being considered by researchers and regulators
around the world is the diversity of team, particularly in the context of
globalization. Mission-based team diversity management aims to maximize the
productivity, creativity, and commitment of the workforce, in addition to
meeting the needs of different clients, based on interdependence between
members of an organization (Andrew, 1979; Hulsheger, 2009). On the one
hand, diversity can bring benefits to group activity, but on the other hand, it can
also lead to lower team performance and weak integration, and limited
satisfaction of the members towards the team (O'Reilly, 1989).
Currently, studies on the impact of team diversity on team governance are left

success of team work in the IT industry in Vietnam.
3. Objects and scope of the study
Research objectives: Understand the impact of team diversity on team
performance.
Research objects: Members of teamworks of enterprises in the information
technology industry in Vietnam.
Research scope: The research focuses on working teams in information
technology enterprises in five provinces and cities: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City,
Da Nang, Dong Nai and Binh Duong.
Research methodology: The dissertation uses the method of synthesizing and
analyzing secondary information from available domestic and international data
sources related to the research problem in order to develop the theoretical
framework and the research model, and research hypotheses.
The thesis uses quantitative methodology applying the SPSS and AMOS
software to test the hypothesis. The author also combined preliminary
qualitative and quantitative research with small samples to test the


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standardization of the scale and questionnaire, the in-depth interview guide.

New contributions in practical terms

4. New contributions of the research

The results of the thesis give suggestions for managers in IT firms in Vietnam to
apply the proposed team performance organization model to manage team

teamwork in the IT industry in Vietnam, as confirming the research background
of the study depending on the degree of interdependence on the tasks of the
team membership and team type affect the relationship between team diversity
and team performance; While the results show that team size does not affect this
relationship.
Third, this research has inherited and further developed Leveson's research
(2009) to assess the direct relation between variable of team members’ cultural
diversity management perceptions and the performance at team level. Thus, the
thesis has explored the gaps in this field of study as this scholar demonstrated
the existence of a relationship between the team members’ cultural diversity
management perceptions variables to the affective commitment of the members
to the team, but not to direct the relationship of this factor with team
performance.
Fourth, in terms of methodology, the author has examined an attribute factor
groups of team diversity: demographic diversity, diversity of knowledge,
Personal value diversity, and cultural diversity management perceptions affects
the result of teamwork in the same SEM linear model to simultaneously
examine the impact of all elements of team diversity attributes on team
performance. In particular, the author examines the direct relationship between
team members’ cultural diversity management perceptions variables impacts on
team performance that were previously unseen and unsolved by other scholars.

5. The structure of the thesis
The thesis report consists of three main sections with the following structure:
- The introduction includes reasons for selection of the research issues;
objectives, objects and scope of research; research methods; new contributions
of research and structure of the thesis report.
- The main content consists of 5 chapters:
The thesis is divided into 5 chapters as follows:
Chapter 1: Theory of Team diversity

other parts of the organization.
The author agree with the concept of the team presented by scholars Katzenbach
& Smith (1993) and Cohen & Bailey (1997), synthesized into the concept of the
team conceived in this thesis as follows:
Team is a type of organizational structure of a business in a modern business
environment, with two or more members and is run relatively independently of
other teams. Team members have complementary skills, committed to a common
goal and target in co-responsible manner.
There are four types of team common to all types of businesses: selfmanagement team, project team, senior management team, and virtual teams
(Cohen & Bailey, 1997; Luecke, 2004):

scholarly observation that differences in demographic variables such as age,
sex, education, race / ethnicity, the relationship between superiors subordinates and colleagues is said to reduce the attractiveness of these
relationships. Similarity attraction identities have a direct impact on the
decisions of managers in the presence of diverse components, and they are less
likely to form teams whose team members have a lot of demographic
differences.

1.2. Theories of teamwork
1.2.1. The theory of The Similarity - Attraction Paradigm
This theory refers to the high attraction between individuals with similarities.
Some researchers also argue that disparity among individuals even leads to the
appearance of thrust. Tsui (1991) was one of the first researchers to talk about
the theory of similarity - attraction, which says that people tend to look for
similar people; Similarities lead to positive effects on communication and social
inclusion of individuals. In his work, Tsui (1991) also summed up the earlier

1.2.2. The Cognitive Diversity Theory
Researchers in this field have argued that cognitive diversity has a positive
effect on team performance because cognitive resources of members bring

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identity for each team member.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH MODEL
2.1. National literature review
Although there have been abundant number of research and studies on team in
the international arena. However, in Vietnam, there are not many authors
interested in this subject. In the thesis of author Ngo Tuan Anh (2011), the
author pointed out the need to transform the organizational model in
information technology (IT) enterprises in Vietnam into a team-based
organizational model.
2.2. International literature review
2.2.1. Literature review on Team Diversity
Diversity is the difference between individuals in any of the attributes that allow
each person to evaluate themselves differently than others (Williams & O'Reilly,
1998). Over the past three decades, researchers have paid much attention to
finding a link between the diversity of team members and team performance.
However, despite a lot of effort, a clear picture of the relationship has not yet to
be fully explored.
Type of Diversity
A majority of researchers agree on the classification of diversity by two
attributes: observable such as age, sex, race / ethnicity, and unobservable
attributes, such as: skills, functional background, seniority, socio-economic
understanding, personality or personal values (Jackson, 1995; Tsui, 1992).
Researcher Harrison (1998) calls these two attributes as diversity at surface
level and diversity at deep-level.
• Surface diversity and its linkage to teamwork
The heterogeneity or diversity at the surface level is defined as the distinctness
of team members, including the characteristics of age, sex, race / ethnicity.

diverse team members would produce higher team performance. Tsui & O'reilly
(1989) noted that, although ethnic identity was given to consider in the
assessment of upper levels on productivity for subordinates, it turned out that
the upper level often tend to be possitively bias to the subbordinates
originnating from the same ethnic groups with them. Most of other studies also
agree that team members from different ethnic groups tend to be less committed
to the organization and more likely to leave the team (Tsui, 1992). .
In summary, in a number of studies examining the effects of surface-level
heterogeneity, the results of scholarly research have not been consistent with the
relationships of variables such as age, gender, ethnicity with the team
performance. Conclusions of several studies remain varied on the existance of
the relationship (or influence) between surfave attributes and the team
performance. Some studies even offer conflicting assessments. However,
because the subject of the research is the information technology enterprises in
Vietnam, there is ethnic identity, so the author does not put this variable into the
research model.
• Deep-level diversity and linkage to team performance
Heterogeneity at the deep level includes differences among members about
beliefs, attitudes and values. Data on these factors are collected from verbal and


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non-verbal behaviors expressed through information exchanging and sharing
among individuals in the working team. Miliken & Martin (1996) also proposed
a similar concept of team diversity in which the basic diversity attributes are
diverse in attitudes, values, knowledge and skills.


value and organizational value. The results of the factor analysis revealed that
33 observations converged into eight factors: Competence, Motivation, Resultsoriented, Competitive, Collaborative, Motivational, Team Oriented, and
Decisiveness. Michelle (2002) conducted a survey of 54 observational variables
and found that 40 observations converged to 9 factors, an additional factor to
the eight factors from O'Reilly's original study is the stability. These 40
observations include 33 observations of the measurement of value diversity in
O'Reilly's (1991) study, Michelle's study covered seven additional observations
of O'Reilly's 54 individual value measurements.
The relationship between the value diversity variable and the team
performance
Liang (2007) conducted a study on the impact of group diversity on the
performance of software project teams. The author has confirmed the existence
of negative relationship between value diversity and team performance. Liang
(2007) used a scale developed from O'Reilly (1991) with 35 observational
variables. In the study of this thesis, the author applies the scale of Michelle,
2002 (Developed from O'Reilly, 1991), to prove the hypothesis: value diversity
has a negative impact on Team performance.
Diversity in skills and functional background

Cultural Diversity in the Working team
Culture
Given various different views and approaches, there are many definitions of
culture. In 2001, Hofstede presented a comprehensive cultural concept as
follows: "Culture embraces methods, ways of thinking, expressing emotions,
responding to information encoded primarily through the characteristic of the
members from that culture; including core value systems that guide the
attitudes, behaviors and attitudes of members from that culture."
Cultural Diversity and employee’s cultural diversity management perceptions.
According to Kossek & Zonia (1993), cultural diversity is understood as the
difference in: beliefs, language, costume, norms, principles of communication,

systems or related fields (Moody, 2003). With the obvious advantages, 21st
century enterprises applying team-based models have become popular and IT
enterprises were not exceptional (Ngo Tuan Anh, 2011). Team work in
information technology projects has long been recognized as an important
criterion for successful project organization and management (Noll, 2002;
Jiang, 2003; Gottschalk, 2007). With rapid development of the IT industry,
research on IT team performance is a topic of much interest to researchers
(Kelly, 1998). However, the success rate of IT projects is much lower than
expected (Standish Group, 2004). To study the factors affecting the success of
IT teams, researchers looked at individual characteristics of the team members.
It is certain that all teams care about the composition of the group and in the
elements of the teams, of which, considering the impact of team diversity on the
success of IT teams have drawn interest from many scholars (Moody, 2003).
The diversity in information technology field is focused on a wide range of
diverse areas such as age, gender, ethnicity, education, expertise, and value
diversity, nevertheless, there have hardly been any studies focusing on direct
effects of the diversity on teamwork performance (Moody, 2003).
At present, there are few studies on the direct impact between the attributes of
team diversity and team performance in IT industry, and revealing
characteristics in this field would create an important foundation to offer
meaningful recommendation to team governors. In addition to the research topic
on the relationship between the attributes of team diversity and team
performance in the IT sector, it seems that studies on this issue are very limited.
Whereas, the author also found out that available literatures have not indicated
any consistent influence of team diversity on team performance (Tables 2.1, 2.2
and 2.4). Current literatures show that the impact of team diversity on team
performance is heterogeneous across sectors (O'Reilly, 1998). It may be that
each sector with different characteristics has influenced the relationship
between team diversity and team performance. So does the industry variable
play an important role in the study of this relationship? In addition, research has

urgent. On the other hand, in long-term teams, task requirements may be more
stable, the division of tasks and the role of each team member can be more
clearly defined (De Dreu, 2003).
2.2.2.3. Team size
According to Smith (1994), team size is the number of participants in the team
activity. Recent studies have begun to examine the impact of team size on team
performance. Increasing the size of a team on the one hand can impede control
and coordination within the team, thereby reducing the satisfaction and trust
among members, on the other hand, the larger number of active members with
different cognitive capacity help improve knowledge, creativity, and positive
impact on teamwork.


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Hackman (2005) indicated that other aspects also have a significant impact on
the evaluation of the results of long-term teams and outlines three key
components of team performance. (developed from Hackman study (1987):
1. Team output (products, services, decisions) meets or exceeds quantitative and
qualitative requirements.
2. Work processes that the team applies to promote the spirit of cooperation,
coordination of work among team members.
3. Teamwork experience contributes positively to learning and feeling the
personal happiness of the team members. .
A very important conclusion from Hackman (2005) states that although the
three criteria for evaluating team performance are significant, the importance of
it will vary depending on the context of the study. In this study, the thesis author
agrees with Hackman's (2005) concept of teamwork as the basis for research.


H4

Functional background diversity has a positive effect on team
performance.

H5

Value diversity has a negative impact on the results of teamwork.

H6

The higher employee perception of cultural diversity management
in the team, the more positive impact to team performance

H7

Task-interdependence level of team members impacts the relation
between team diversity and team performance

Hypothesis

Conntent

H8

Team type (by time) impacts the relation between team diversity
and team performance

H9


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different stakeholders in the IT industry. Business leaders, team leaders, and
staff members.
Quantitative research: to test hypotheses and models of the research. The
quantitative tools used in the thesis include Cronbach's Alpha reliability
analysis, EFA discovery factor analysis, CFA assay factor analysis and SEM
linear modeling analysis. Quantitative research is conducted through direct
questionnaire surveys. This research was conducted through direct interviews
with employees, leaders in working groups at IT enterprises in 5 provinces and
cities: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang City, Dong Nai, and Binh Duong.
3.2. Qualitative research
3.2.1. Intensive Interviewing Objectives
The in-depth interview guide was developed to examine the relevance of the
scales as well as to identify the preliminary correlations between independent
variables and dependent variables, thus setting the basis for the scale
adjustment. Model variables in the context of research and a preliminary
confirmation of the correlation between team diversity attributes and team
performance.
3.2.2. Results of qualitative research
- 15 out of 15 respondents indicated that the attributes of diversity were diverse:
age diversity, gender diversity, individual value diversity, employee perceptions
of cultural diversity management affects team performance. The author notes
this result for further evaluation before making conclusions about the effect of
these factors on team performance.
- 7 of the 7 interviewees were senior staff, having a lot of teamwork experience
when asked about the scale of the difference between the individual value and

Hanoi is 142 responses, Ho Chi Minh City is 127 responses, Da Nang collected
71 responses, Dong Nai 30 responses and Binh Duong 33 responses.
4.2. Preliminary evaluation of reliability scale using Cronbach alpha
Based on the reliability of the scales in the research model, there are three
components of team diversity attributes that affect team performance with
reliability of 0.7. Thus, the scales designed in this thesis are statistically
significant and reach the required confidence coefficient. Specifically:
(1) Personal value diversity, denoted as Cronbach's Alpha, is 0.916 (after the
5/40 variable, the coefficient of variation is
value
diversity
by -0,086
supportiveness has a negative impact
on team performance.

0,001

Accepted (***)

H6

Personal value diversity by innovation -0,119
has a negative effect on team
performance.

0,033

Accepted (**)

H7

Personal
value
diversity
by -0,164
decisiveness has a negative effect on
team performance.

0,000

0,007

Accepted (***)

Source: According to the author's survey
4.5.3. Multi-team structural analysis method
4.5.3.1. Multi-team the analysis according to the degree of interdependence on
the task
The context in which the level of interdependence on the task of IT team
members is divided into: high levels of interdependence, moderate
interdependence and low interdependence. Test results show that the variable
model was chosen. In other words, the level of dependence on the task of team
members influences the relationship between team diversity and team
performance.
4.5.3.2. Multi-team the analysis according to team type


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The contextual variable of team type contexts in working teams in IT companies
in Viet Nam are divided into: short-term team (under-1-year operation), longterm team (teams based on departmental mechanism or operation time over 1
year). The test results show that the variable model was chosen and the
conclusion was that team type influenced the relationship between team
diversity and team performance.
4.5.3.3. Multi-team the analysis according to team size
The contextual variable of team size in working teams in Vietnam IT industry
are divided into groups of less than 10 members and groups of 10 members or
more. The test results show that the invariant model was chosen and concludes

diversity has a negative impact on team performance. Functional background
diversity has a positive impact on team performance. The results of the thesis
also confirm that the factors of exploration of the personal value variable has a
negative impact on team performance.
At the same time, the thesis also confirms that employees' perception of cultural
diversity management in the team positively influences team performance. The
thesis also confirmed the impact of the research context on the relationship
between team diversity and team performance. Research results show that the
first contextual variable, the task-interdependence level of team members (in
terms of three levels: high interdependence, moderate interdependence and low
interdependence), and the second contextual variable of short-term and longterm teams affect the relationship between team diversity and team
performance; whereas the study did not find the effect of team size variables
(teams of less than 10 members and teams of 10 or more) on the relationship
between team diversity and team performance.

5.2.2. Recommendations to team leaders
• Regarding the organization of teams
For working teams in IT enterprises in Vietnam to function well, the working
teams should enhance the organization of team activities by short-term teams
(teams of less than one year) and the task-interdependence levels of these team
members should be high and medium level. When selecting members and
assigning tasks to each team member, it is important to note that for the team to
function well, team members should have a gender identity, education level
diversity, and function diversity, which will help them to contribute more ideas,
methods, innovative and innovative solutions to improve the quality of
decisions.
• Regarding team leading
Through this research, managers can better understand how the difference
between personal value of members and the values of the team results in team
performance, particularly the greater difference of the value, the more

team members in a consistent manner on how motivations work, namely the
working ability, such as the ability to work continuously for hours, the sense of
professional capacity enhancement, and the willingness to performance-based
salary, the team performance will be better.
5.3 Limitations of research and future research
First, the results of the study present the impact mechanism of variables,
however, it is not advisable to apply this result for all teams working in IT
enterprises in the whole country because the target groups are in Hanoi, Ho Chi
Minh City, Da Nang, Dong Nai and Binh Duong. Although these are the five
most developed cities and provinces in the IT sector, their representativeness is
not high compared to 63 provinces and cities nationwide.
Secondly, although the thesis combined both quantitative and qualitative
research methods for the adjustment of the conceptual scale of research, the
study did not apply the expert approach to provide solutions and
recommendations.
Third, the thesis measures team diversity at the surface level through factors:
age diversity and gender diversity are incomplete and comprehensive. Some
attributes of team diversity such as income diversity, regional diversity affecting
team performance should be considered in future studies.
Fourth, the thesis examines the impact of the research context on the
relationship between team diversity and team performance, figuring out the
specificity of team diversity in IT sector in Vietnam. Thus, the limitation of the
thesis is that this result only allows the contextual variables to influence or not

CONCLUSION
Inheriting and developing previous researches, the thesis has confirmed the
level and direction of impact of team diversity on team performance using
qualitative and quantitative research methods. The findings of the thesis also
show that the characteristics of team diversity in the context of IT teams in
Vietnam show the influence of the degree of interdependence on the task of