10.1177/56492602250518ARTICLEJOU NAL OFM NAG MENTINQUIRY / March2 03Kisfalvi, Pitcher /DOI G WHAT FEELSRIGHT Doing What Feels Right The Influence of CEO Character and Emotions on Top Management Team Dynamics

Faced with confusing and sometimes contradictory research results linking team compo-sition to performance, recent research on top management teams (TMTs) has begun to investigate hitherto unexplored variables that might influence the hypothesized rela-tionships. Increasing attention is being paid to the nature and quality of TMT strategic decision-making processes, with scholars arguing that diversity per se will not affect per-formance outcomes unless that diversity is allowed to make itself felt through systematic debate. The findings presented here suggest that diversity and debate may not be enough; a powerful CEO’s emotional reactions, rooted in character, may short-circuit the pre-sumed linkages between diversity, decision-making processes, and performance. This has important theoretical and methodological implications for this research stream, helping to explain why existing large-sample research in this area has failed to produce consistent and robust results. Suggestions are made for ways to improve theorizing and research design in this important research domain