Investigating the Role of Tenure Diversity in Information System Project Teams: A Multilevel Analysis

Diversity in information system project (ISP) teams can be a double-edged sword. Since many ISP teams bring together different specialists who have different backgrounds, knowledge, and skills, managing their diverse nature represents an important concern in the IS field. However, so far, few studies have examined the influence that project teams' diversity has on IS project outcomes. To better understand this influence, we developed a multilevel research model that examined job tenure and organizational tenure diversity in ISP teams and their influence on team members' satisfaction. We tested our hypotheses via hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) with data that we collected from 200 participants in 41 ISP teams. Our results indicate that job tenure influences the effect that job tenure diversity has on a team member's satisfaction: while team "rookies" were more satisfied in teams that had greater job tenure diversity, team "veterans" were more satisfied when their teams had lower job tenure diversity. Via systematically applying both conceptual and methodological recommendations in combination, we address several limitations in past research and underscore the need to adopt a more nuanced and rigorous approach to examine diversity in project teams.