From conflict to synergy: knowledge diversity, leadership, and project performance

Knowledge diversity can foster knowledge creation but also create coordination challenges. Drawing on information processing and social categorization theories, this study examines how educational background, expertise, and organizational function diversity influence knowledge creation and project performance, and how formal and informal leadership shape these effects. Three-wave survey data from 636 members across 20 Chinese construction projects were analyzed using regression and necessary condition analysis. Expertise diversity promotes knowledge creation, particularly under informal leadership, whereas organizational function diversity is more effectively leveraged under formal leadership. Formal leadership weakens the effect of expertise diversity, while informal leadership weakens that of organizational function diversity. All three diversity dimensions are necessary but insufficient for high knowledge creation. Knowledge creation mediates the relationship between knowledge diversity and project performance. The findings highlight dimension-specific leadership roles and position knowledge diversity as both a potential resource and a necessary condition for knowledge creation.