A theory based on the demography of top management teams is used to explain membership turnover in two Swedish business groups, network analysis being used to define group membership. The results suggest these business groups possess a combination of financial and industrial experience as a group resource and the socialising strategy of control as a force counteracting the conflict-producing force of heterogeneity. An organisational demographic perspective focusing on opposing forces of heterogeneity and homogeneity is developed. It is shown that the perspective can be applied both to formal organisations and to informal ones such as networks.

Article lays a research agenda for the studies of cultural diversity in top management teams, by reviewing models, methods and definitions utilized within this stream of research. It reviews three different models that are used in studies of cultural diversity of top management teams, as well as elaborates on different methods, and conceptualization of culture. The article concludes with a discussion, and suggests the research agenda in studies of cultural diversity in top management teams, proposing the use and combination of models, methods, as well as conceptualization and measurement of culture. The key result of this paper is development of the analytical framework for the studies of cultural diversity in top management teams and proposition of the alternative ways of operationalization of culture and exploration of the black-box of team processes.

This article investigates the complex interrelation between ethnic and gender diversity, process and performance among groups of business students. The article is based on an empirical survey of business students working on a complex assignment in groups of two to five in a small Swedish university. The results indicate that gender diversity leads to positive group outcomes, while ethnic diversity appears to create negative group outcomes. Intervening process variables, such as group communication, conflict and effectiveness in problem solving, were not found to be influenced by diversity, or to influence group outcomes. While the non-influence of intervening variables can probably be explained by methodological difficulties, the negative outcome for ethnic diversity indicates a need to help students better manage ethnic diversity in order to reap its benefits.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the "black box" of top management team (TMT) processes such as communication and power distribution, examining the example of ethnically diverse TMTs in Latvia.

Design/methodology/approach - The study relies on case studies of two multinational companies operating in Latvia.

Findings - The findings suggest that ethnic diversity in TMTs leads to more informal and open communication in the teams, but has no clear influence on power distribution in the teams. The results highlight the importance of studying variables that could moderate the effects of ethnic diversity on communication and power distribution; throughout the study, these variables were identified as, but not limited to, environment and shared goals.

Originality/value - This paper uses case studies to explore the black box of team processes, and proposes an alternative operationalization of cultural diversity, measured as ethnic diversity. It also advocates an alternative conceptualization of TMTs expressed in terms of decision-making power. The paper's major contribution is its opening up and exploration of team processes, usually avoided by researchers because of their assumed complexity. Moreover, the study contributes to TMT studies by presenting the Latvian environment as a unique research locus where ethnic identities are rich and various.

This paper reports on the interaction of compositional effects of boards of directors (BoD) and top management teams (TMTs) on firms' financial performance. Composition of both groups is investigated for cultural, age, tenure and gender diversity. We explore effects of demographic diversity in the two power groups on performance in interaction with each other by bringing in the similarityattraction paradigm to argue for the relationship. Study data are from consolidated financial statements in annual reports of listed Swedish corporations. Our findings suggest that while differences in gender, age and tenure diversities have no effect on firm performance, close alignment of cultural diversities of the BoD and TMT does have a positive effect of firm performance.