Face It: The Impact of Testosterone Exposure on Cooperation, Conflict Processes, and Workgroup Performance

There is burgeoning body of organizational research focusing on how workplace practices (e.g. office layout, supervision, employee fitness programs) impact the physiology of employees; e.g. heart rate, blood pressure, and endocrine responses. However, organizational research devotes little attention to how the physiology of employees impacts workplace outcomes. The current research is interested in testosterone exposure, a critical physiological process occurring during fetal development and adolescence and how it affects behavior and performance in workgroups. By using a triangulation strategy involving archival and laboratory data, the current research examines how testosterone exposure influences cooperation, conflict processes, and performance for workgroups and how this influence is impacted by pooled and reciprocal task interdependence structures.