Week 13, Group & Team Dynamics, Readings

Question 1

Jackson & Joshi (2011) Summary

Answer 1

Here is an extremely detailed summary of the key points of the paper “Work Team Diversity” by Susan E. Jackson and Aparna Joshi:

Overview:
- The authors provide a review of research on the effects of diversity in work teams, focusing on studies conducted in organizational settings over the past 15 years. They discuss the nature of diversity, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and future research directions.

Key Points:

The Nature of Work Team Diversity
- Work team diversity refers to the extent to which team members differ from each other on various attributes. These can be relations-oriented (e.g. age, gender) or task-oriented (e.g. skills, education).

• Diversity can also be readily detected (e.g. ethnicity) or underlying (e.g. values). Understanding different types of diversity is important as they may have different consequences.
• Diversity is complex as teams can be diverse on some attributes but not others. Studies often only examine 1-2 types of diversity. Interactions between diversity types are important but understudied.
• Measuring diversity involves using team-level statistics that capture the distribution of individual attributes. Higher heterogeneity indicates greater diversity.

Theoretical Foundations
- Key theories discussed include attraction-selection-attrition, organizational demography, social identity, information processing, social capital, and faultlines.

• These provide insights into how diversity may influence team processes and outcomes. For example, diversity can reduce cohesion but provide access to information. Integrating perspectives is needed.

Consequences of Work Team Diversity
- Communication: Diversity often reduces communication frequency, especially informal communication. This may disrupt internal team dynamics.

• Conflict: Findings are mixed on how diversity influences task vs emotional conflict. There is some evidence gender/ethnic diversity increase emotional conflict.
• Cohesion & Turnover: Diversity often reduces cohesion and increases turnover. But effects depend on context like occupational demographics.
• Creativity & Innovation: Diversity can bring ideas/information but also disruptive faultlines. Positive effects more likely for complex tasks.
• Performance: Mixed findings overall. Relations-oriented diversity often has neutral or negative effects. Task diversity tends to improve performance.

Future Research Directions
- Examine multiple types of diversity together using multidimensional approaches like faultlines theory

• Consider effects of team diversity in broader contextual factors like tasks, leadership, organizational culture
• Use multilevel perspectives to understand cross-level effects
• Conduct more rigorous evaluations of diversity training and interventions
• Expand focus to globally diverse teams and diversity in social networks

Conclusion:
- Despite complex and mixed findings, optimism exists about new research directions that can unravel the dynamics and consequences of diversity.

Question 2

Cannon-Bowers & Bowers (2011) Summary

Answer 2

Here is an extremely detailed summary of the key points in this research paper on team development and functioning:

• The study of work teams and team performance in organizations really took off starting in the 1980s, spurred by events like aviation incidents attributed to poor teamwork. Since then, research has grown substantially.
• Teams are defined as small groups of interdependent individuals who share responsibility for outcomes. Key features include interdependence, shared responsibility, common goals, and existing in an organizational context.
• There are different types of teams that vary on dimensions like autonomy, time horizon, interdependence, and integration with the larger organization. Common taxonomies categorize teams as production, service, project, action, or advisory groups.
• Team tasks can also be categorized in terms of the workflow interdependence required - pooled, sequential, reciprocal, or intensive. Task type influences team composition and training needs.
• Effective teamwork requires knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that are often specialized to that team’s roles and responsibilities. KSAs can be classified as task vs team contingent and specific vs generic.
• Personality impacts team performance, with conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion, and agreeableness positively related to effectiveness. Composition in terms of minimum or maximum scores may matter.
• Cognitive ability and job expertise positively predict team performance. Demographic diversity has little effect, but task-related diversity improves outcomes.
• Team processes like transition (mission analysis, planning), action (monitoring, coordination), and interpersonal (conflict management) are critical for teamwork. Emergent states like cohesion, cognition, and adaptability also matter.
• Team performance measurement assesses outcomes like quality of output, mistakes, points scored, etc. Processes are captured by observation, surveys or concept mapping.
• Effective training uses strategies like cross-training, guided team self-correction, scenario-based methods, coordination training, and more. Transfer to the job is crucial.
• Virtual teams face challenges like reduced cohesion and communication quality that can be mitigated somewhat by technology. Multicultural teams also confront issues stemming from cultural diversity.
• Future research should explicitly state assumptions and team/task characteristics, choose valid models of processes, and provide effect sizes when available.