Top Management Team Structure: A Review and Research Agenda

The top management team (TMT) structure, which comprises the size, role structure, and hierarchy of a TMT, has received increasing attention of late. However, despite the literature’s potential to complement research on strategic leadership (in particular, TMT composition and the heterogeneity of TMT members’ experiences and psychological characteristics), the fragmented insights have complicated the task of assessing this promising research area. The purpose of this article is to review the empirical research on TMT structure and to identify gaps, patterns, and future research opportunities. Based on our review, we synthesize the research on the TMT structure into a framework and propose avenues for future research in the following areas: (1) studying TMT structures jointly, (2) exploring new dimensions of the TMT structure, (3) applying new perspectives and approaches, (4) understanding the antecedents, and (5) combining the TMT structure with other strategic leadership research.