CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND TEAMS

DIVERSITY IN TEAMS

Diversity a difficult state for teams and difficult to manage

“To implement policies and practices that increase diversity of the workforce without understanding how diverse individuals can come together to form effective teams is irresponsible” (Mannix & Neale, 2005)

EVIDENCE FOR EFFECTS IN DIVERSE WORK TEAMS

General reviews indicate little overall effect on various measures of productivity and with various measures of diversity

Some benefit with a difficult task that requires broad inputs

Small benefit of functional diversity Some evidence for negative emotional

reactions to demographic differences. Negative effects on social integration,

communication, poor performance With differences in expertise—problems of

understanding and communicating

POSITIVE EFFECTS OF DIVERSITY IN TEAMS

Bantel and Jackson (1989) Top management teams in banks

Diversity and innovation Innovative banks Management more educated More varied in educational background and

expertise

POSITIVE EFFECTS OF DIVERSITY IN TEAMS

Wiersema and Bantel (1992)

Diversity in educational diversity in top management in Fortune 500 companies Related to more strategic changes in corporate

strategy

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF DIVERSITY IN TEAMS

Tenure diversity in top management teams

More diversity more turnover

Seems to affect degree of social integration

DEMOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY

Lack of effects of demographic diversity on objective performance in teams is not surprising Most tasks not relevant to demographic diversity Do not tap effect of unique perspectives, experience etc. Financial performance, firm performance, sales

A number of factors may inhibit performance of demographically diverse teams Positive reactions to similar others or in-group members Information from in-group members more impactful (Mackie et

al., 1990; 1992) Common ideas more impact than unique ideas (Dugosh &

Paulus, 2005). Agreement bias (Stasser & Titus, 1985) Social interaction anxiety may be higher in diverse groups

FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY

Positive effects of functional diversity not surprising If tasks require multiple expertise, of course

expertise diversity should be beneficial Effects should also depend on the relevance of

the task

Yet teams with expertise diversity may perform poorly (Van der Vegt, et al. 2006; Woolley et al., 2008) Communication, status, diversity of perspectives

about nature of task (Cronin & Weingart, 2007 )

DEMOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY AND TYPE OF TASK

Effects likely related to whether the task is relevant to diversity Scientific/technical tasks vs. culturally/socially relevant

tasks

Creativity tasks may be especially influenced by relevant demographic diversity (van Dijk et al., 2012)

Diversity based on race, ethnicity, and nationality may be especially impactful on creativity tasks Differences in perspectives, experiences Especially first generation for nationality

RACIAL/ETHIC DIVERSITY AND CREATIVITY

McLeod, Lobel and Cox (1993) found that ethnically heterogeneous groups generated ideas that were more effective and feasible than those from homogeneous groups on a tourist brainstorming task.

Cady and Valentine (1999) found that racial diversity in groups increased the number of ideas but not the quality of ideas on a task requiring solutions to a business problem.

Watson, Kumar, & Michaelson (1993): Racially/ethnically diverse MBA teams generated more alternatives and broader range of perspectives on business cases toward end of the semester.

MULTICULTURAL EXPERIENCE Experiences in other cultures can enhance

creativity Leung et al. (2008); Tadmor et al. (2012)

Critical factor is whether this experience challenges reevaluation of personal perspectives

Does not have to be extensive in terms of time

Multi-cultural learning from living in another country is a key factor (Maddox et al., 2010).

May increase ability to take perspective of others

MULTICULTURAL EXPERIENCE

Tadmor et al. (2012) positive effect of multicultural experience in dyadic brainstorming (uses for a brick) Pairs of Asian and Caucasian students Fluency, flexibility and novelty

SYNERGISTIC BENEFIT OF MULTICULTURAL INTERACTION

TADMOR ET AL. (2012)

FUSION MODEL Janssens & Brett (2006); Crotty & Brett (2012)

Cultural intelligence in global teams

Pluralistic democracy-allows for co-existence of differences among team members.

Fusion cooking: combining diverse elements in a way that they remain identifiable but are linked in unique ways.

Group members have to share their unique perspectives when relevant (feelings of safety)

Collective motivation and ability to build on unique perspectives

FUSION MODEL

Multicultural work teams that varied in nationality and primary language and reported higher levels of fusion also reported higher levels of creative applications total quality management task (Crotty and Brett, 2012)

PROCESSES Motivation (internal and external)

De Dreu et al. (2011)

Communication and sharing of knowledge and ideas Groups--Paulus et al. (2000) Team innovation (Gebert et al. 2010 ; Hu et al., 2009)

Multicultural stimulation Effects of cultural experiences on individual creativity (Leung et al.,

2008) May be due to cognitively challenging experiences (cf., Crisp &

Turner, 2011) Benefits of interaction among individuals with multicultural

experiences (Tadmor et al., 2012)

Stimulation and elaboration Attention, associations, building (Kohn, Paulus, & Choi, 2011; Paulus

& Brown, 2007; Van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007)

MODERATORS Experience as a team

Cummings & Kiesler (2008) Watson et al. (1993) Transactive memory (Moreland, 2006)

Climate/cohesion (Roberge & van Dick, 2010) Positive effects of cohesion on group/team performance Importance of common goals Common ground or similarities (Gaertner et al., 1989; Miura

& Hida, 2004). Psychological safety (West; Edmondson)

Attitude to diversity Openness (Homan et al., 2008) Intercultural traits (van der Zee & van Oudenhoven, 2013) Attitude to diverse workgroups

EFFECT OF TIME AS A TEAM Initially group members may share information

they have in common to establish commonalities and gain acceptance

After establishing social cohesion, group members may focus more on their unique expertise and perspectives

Study of cultural diversity in MBA students (Watson et al. 1993) The more diverse groups were less creative early in the

semester The more diverse groups were more creative later in

the semester

ATTITUDE TO WORKGROUP DIVERSITYNAKUI, PAULUS, & VAN DER ZEE (2011)

For demographic diversity attitude to diversity may be important and using a diversity relevant task

Group diversity and attitude toward diversity were allowed to vary naturally

Groups of size three and four

Diversity of ethnicity and language background in groups should lead to higher quality of ideas on task of generating ideas for enhancing campus for diverse students

This effect should be stronger for those with positive attitude to diverse groups

Working in diverse groups can increase one’s understanding of those who are different from me.

Diverse groups will make poor decisions. Being a leader of a diverse group should enhance a

person’s leadership ability. I prefer to socialize with people from my own ethnic

group. For complicated problems, diverse groups will be

able to solve the problem more easily. Groups whose members are diverse will be more

creative. In general, I prefer socializing with people like

myself. I enjoy working in diverse groups. I prefer working with people who are very similar to

me. I find interacting with people from different

backgrounds very stimulating.

Attitude To Diverse Workgroups Scale

NUMBER OF IDEAS

Quantity and Diversity (Median Split)

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

DivHigh DivL ow

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P erspectives and Diversity (Median Split)

3

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9

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DivHigh DivL ow

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ADWS, DIVERSITY AND QUALITY

HighDWS LowDWS8.4

8.5

8.6

8.7

8.8

8.9

9

9.1

ADWS and Diversity (Median Split) on Quality

DivHigh

DivLow

ADWS Score

Qu

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STRATEGIES OF EFFECTIVELY WORKING WITH DIVERSE TEAMS

Exploitation vs exploration Innovation vs implementation Creativity vs production Diversity better with innovation/creativity Homogeneity better with exploitation

STRATEGIES OF EFFECTIVELY WORKING WITH DIVERSE TEAMS Bridging

Provide a link or team identity

• Developing Common Ground Discover common values, interests, beliefs Discover areas of intellectual agreement

Maintain individual uniqueness Jansens & Brett (2006)

DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT IN TEAMSANTINO ET AL. (2013)

Team Faultlines Diversity dimensions of group members are

related Young white females vs older black males Technical experts with business experience vs

artistic people with design experience These relationships can enhance the difficulties

of functioning of diverse groups

PROBLEMS OF FAULTLINES

Is faultline salient/relevant? Categorization Ingroup/outgroup Team conflict Failure to fully build and combine ideas and

information Information elaboration

MANAGEMENT OF FAULTLINES

First diagnose if they exist and are a problem for the group Group observation informal interviews

If a problem Change structure Change relationships

MANAGEMENT OF FAULTLINES

Structural Evaluate/change hiring practices Increase informality of meetings Change seating positions Mix groups to minimize faultlines Develop shared goals

MANAGEMENT OF FAULTLINES

Relational Alter diversity beliefs or attitudes Make team members aware of unique knowledge

of diverse team members Department/organizational level socialization

practices that enhance common learning, bonds, and appreciation of uniqueness