OB Article Bridging Faultlines in Diverse Teams Workshop 2

Question 1

For which tasks are diverse teams created

Answer 1

For the most complex challenges

Question 2

What is the nature of diversity?

Answer 2

creates challenges that reduce team’s innovative capacity and lowers overall effectiveness.

Question 3

Why some diverse teams fail

Answer 3

Two root failures

1. failure of collaboration
2. failure of knowledge sharing

Question 4

When do faultlines emerge?

Answer 4

Faultlines emerge under the pressure of a complex, time-dependent task.

Question 5

On what is the creation of subgroups based?

Answer 5

On the combination of multiple dimensions (gender, function, nationality, age.. demographic attributes)

Question 6

When do deep-level attributes come into play?

Answer 6

At later stages of team development

Question 7

Recommendation for leading diverse teams

Answer 7

If there is a high probability of faultlines emerging, then the leader should emphazise a task-oriented leadership style in the early stages of the project. Then switch to relationship orientation later in the project. (Too avoid deep-level attributes creating faultlines).

Question 8

Time to switch to relationship-oriented leadership style

Answer 8

when all members of a team have developed

• specific expectations for the project
• negotiated a accepted influence structure