An Empirical Study of IT-based faultlines in Chinese Corporations

Since Lau and Murnighan first introduced the concept of faultlines in 1998, there are many extended studies related to faultlines theory. It is obvious that faultlines theory adds valuable explanations in addition to what numerous previous demographic studies have explored. However, previous research has not been able to fully integrate the characteristics embedded in the workplace environments, and the influence of faultlines in IT industries has yet to be explored. So it is not reasonable and convincing to extend the findings from previous faultlines research to other industries in the global world. In this study, IT related influence is given considerable weight into traditional faultlines theory and the impact of IT-based faultlines is revealed. Our study indicates that IT-based faultlines have negative impact on task conflict, process conflict and relationship conflict, and also have negative impact on individual outcomes such as individual performance and satisfaction. The influence of IT-based faultlines on people s intend to remain in the current organization is found to be insignificant. Our empirical study reconfirmed that faultlines are important indicator in group works and also that faultlines are intimately related to various conflicts and individual outcomes. We hope our research findings would be beneficial to the organizations concerned with effective and efficient group work.