Lecture 8 - Team Diversity Flashcards

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1
Q

What is diversity?

A

The degree to which differences exist between members of a social unit / perception that another person is different from the self.

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2
Q

What are the two approaches of viewing team diversity?

A

Main effects approach and Categorization Elaboration Model (CEM)

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3
Q

What is the Main Effects Approach?

A

The prediction that diversity has a strong (negative or positive) effect on team’s outcomes (performance, innovation, success, turnover).

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4
Q

What are the two Main Effects Approaches regarding diversity?

A

1) The information/decision making perspective (positive) and 2) the social categorization perspective (negative)

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4
Q

Why is diversity good from pov of the information/decision making perspective?

A
  • Bigger pool of info, knowledge and perspectives.
  • Bigger behavioural potential
  • Information advantage
    RESULT: Better problem solving, decision making, creativity and innovation.
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5
Q

Why is diversity bad from pov of the social categorization perspective?

A

Social categorization* and intergroup bias

*(not inherently bad if it does not lead to integroup bias or identity threat)

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6
Q

What is social categorization?

A

Perceptual grouping of people (dutch vs non-dutch, men vs women etc.)

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7
Q

What is integroup bias?

A

More favourable perceptions regarding a similar teammembers (ingroup) compared to dissimilar (outgroup)

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8
Q

What is (one of the possible!) social categorization consecutive outcomes?

A

Diversity -> social categorization and integroup bias -> negative performance, negative satisfaction and turnover increase.

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9
Q

What are some of the ‘‘good’’ and ‘‘bad’’ diversity types?

A

Info processing diversity - ‘‘good’’ educational background, tenure, functional background, job-related diversity (better info and processing)

Social category diversity - “bad”” - nationality, gender, age, race, demographic diversity (categorization&integroup bias)

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10
Q

What is the main idea of the Categorization Elaboration Model?

A

It refines the decision making perspective - what information processing to be achived for benefits to occur - INFORMATION ELABORATION

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11
Q

When does diversity promote elaboration?

A

When there are:
1) Task requirements
2) Cognitive capacity to share info
3) Member motivation (facilitating link between diversity and performance)

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12
Q

When does diversity lead to social categorization?

A

When there is salience of categorization.

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13
Q

What are the types of salience for social categorization?

A
  • Cognitive accessibiity
  • Normative fit
  • Comparative fit
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14
Q

What is cognitive accessibility?

A

How easily does a diversity attribute come to mind (gender, and ethnicity are attributes with high cognitive accessibility).

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15
Q

What is normative fit?

A

The perceived behavior of another member corresponds to our knowledge based-expectations (i.e. similar expertise and/or point of view)

16
Q

What is comparative fit?

A

The level of difficulty in splitting two groups into subgroups.

Examples:

High comparative fit - Two senior female engineers, and two junior male marketers. (Seniority and job type are easily attributed to gender).

Low comparative fit - One senior male engineer, one junior male marketer + one senior female marketer, and one junior male engineer. (Seniority and job type are not easily attributed to gender)

17
Q

What are group faultlines?

A

Hypothetical splitting of a group into subgroups based on one or more attributes. Diversity often leads to social categorization in such groups.

18
Q

When does social categorization lead to integroup bias?

A

When there is an identity threat.

19
Q

What is an identity threat?

A

Uniqueness is called into question, discriminated etc. => Feelings for restoring identity come up => Differential evaluation and integroup bias occur.

20
Q

Why is integroup bias bad?

A

It affects each aspect of the team - performance, satisfaction, turnover.

21
Q

What should be done for diversity to lead to sucess?

A

Avoiding integroup bias (following norms, valuing each member) and promting information elaboration (be inclusive of everyone, work with differences rather than majority, aim for equal representation etc.)

22
Q

How does the CEM model perceive diversity (negatively or positively)?

A

Both. All dimensions of diversity can have both a negative and positive effect.

23
Q

How to excel in diversity in management scenarios?

A
  • Preventing intergroup bias
  • Fostering information elaboration
  • Creating shared identity
  • Treating members fairly and respectively.
24
Q

How to excel in tasks with strong info processing and decision making?

A

Focus on task ability and task management

25
Q

How to elaborate diverse information?

A

Members become more familiar with each other’s perspectives BUT:
- Time pressure factor - ability to elaborate diverse info also depends on time → members become more familiar with each other’s perspectives.

26
Q

How to prevent integroup bias?

A

By managing salience of social categorization:
E.g. preventing high comparive fit in team; by cross-cuting diversity (one social difference is weakened by another social difference - thus reducing its effect);

27
Q

What is an objective performance of diversity?

A

Neither type of diversity has a reliable objective effect.

28
Q

How to prevent intergroup bias?

A

By managing salience of social categorization:
E.g. preventing high comparive fit in team; by cross-cuting diversity (one social difference is weakened by another social difference - thus reducing its effect);

29
Q

What are the three diversity perspectives?

A

Discrimination and fairness
Access and legitimacy
Integration and learning

30
Q

What are the two key processes for the effective performance of diverse teams?

A

Create shared identity and facilitate information elaboration

31
Q

What does creating a shared identity do?

A

It prevents intergroup bias by:
-It increases the salience (dominance) of the whole group.
-The focus is on the group rather than on a specific individual. ,
-Reward the team, not only the individual’s performance.
-Emphasize common values.
-Have a shared, attractive future.

32
Q

What do you need to promote to increase attractiveness in a group (through shared identity)?

A

Promote cohesion (team building, reducing competition, team not too large).
Promote collective efficacy - display confidence in ability, and focus on past success.

33
Q

How do you create a shared reality?

A

A shared understanding of the task (importance of interdependence)
A shared understanding of who knows what (expertise awareness)
Shared understanding of behaviour (norms, responsibilities etc).

34
Q

How to promote elaboration?

A

Invite ‘‘silent’’ members
Ask questions
Explore sources of differences
Constructive feedback
Promotion of learning