Lecture 8 - Team Diversity

Question 1

What is diversity?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What are the two approaches of viewing team diversity?

Answer 2

Main effects approach and Categorization Elaboration Model (CEM)

Question 3

What is the Main Effects Approach?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What are the two Main Effects Approaches regarding diversity?

Answer 4

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

Question 4

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

Answer 4

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

Question 5

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

Answer 5

Social categorization* and intergroup bias

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

Question 6

What is social categorization?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What is integroup bias?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

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

Answer 8

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

Question 9

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

Answer 9

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)

Question 10

What is the main idea of the Categorization Elaboration Model?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

When does diversity promote elaboration?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

When does diversity lead to social categorization?

Answer 12

When there is salience of categorization.

Question 13

What are the types of salience for social categorization?

Answer 13

• Cognitive accessibiity
• Normative fit
• Comparative fit

Question 14

What is cognitive accessibility?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What is normative fit?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What is comparative fit?

Answer 16

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)

Question 17

What are group faultlines?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

When does social categorization lead to integroup bias?

Answer 18

When there is an identity threat.

Question 19

What is an identity threat?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Why is integroup bias bad?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What should be done for diversity to lead to sucess?

Answer 21

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.)

Question 22

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

Answer 22

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

Question 23

How to excel in diversity in management scenarios?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

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

Answer 24

Focus on task ability and task management

Question 25

How to elaborate diverse information?

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

How to prevent integroup bias?

Answer 26

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);

Question 27

What is an objective performance of diversity?

Answer 27

Neither type of diversity has a reliable objective effect.

Question 28

How to prevent intergroup bias?

Answer 28

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);

Question 29

What are the three diversity perspectives?

Answer 29

Discrimination and fairness
Access and legitimacy
Integration and learning

Question 30

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

Answer 30

Create shared identity and facilitate information elaboration

Question 31

What does creating a shared identity do?

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

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

Answer 32

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

Question 33

How do you create a shared reality?

Answer 33

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).

Question 34

How to promote elaboration?

Answer 34

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