Sangok Yoo (OLPD PhD 2020, Human Resource Development), Assistant Professor of Management at Northwest Missouri State University, was named the recipient of the Dissertation Award from the Association for Talent Development (ATD).

His dissertation, titled “The Effects of Expertise Diversity and Task Interdependence on Project Team Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Individual Autonomy,” explores the effects of expertise diversity and task interdependence on project team effectiveness by examining HR information for 274 individuals from 50 project teams to operationalize expertise-domain diversity and expertise-level diversity. 

Yoo’s research revealed that expertise-domain diversity was negatively related to project efficiency, project creativity, and team satisfaction. Expertise-level diversity was positively related to project efficiency and team satisfaction and not related to project creativity. Both expertise-domain diversity and expertise-level diversity were not significantly associated with growth experience. Task interdependence was positively related to team satisfaction and growth experience. In terms of moderation, individual autonomy negatively moderated the relationships between task interdependence and project team effectiveness, while it had no moderation effect on the relationships between expertise diversity and project team effectiveness.