Educational diversity and group effectiveness: a social network perspective

Abstract

PurposeThis paper sets out to test the mediating role of internal network density and external network range in the relationship between educational diversity (i.e. separation and variety) and group effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachThe authors surveyed 267 employees in 54 organizational groups.FindingsThe study's results show that educational separation has a U‐shaped relationship with the advice network density. Moreover, educational variety moderates the relation of educational separation with external network range in such a way that for groups with high educational variety, the relationship between educational separation and external network range is U‐shaped, while for groups with low educational variety the relationship has an inverted U shape. The results also show that internal network density and external network range mediate the relationship between educational diversity and group effectiveness.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper extends the literature on group diversity by simultaneously exploring two forms of educational diversity (separation and variety) as they relate to group network density and external network range. The study is cross‐sectional, restricting causal inferences and future research should further explore the way in which the alignment of educational variety and separation relates to social network structure and group effectiveness.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the association between educational diversity and group social network structure and the way they relate to group effectiveness enables managers to improve group effectiveness.Originality/valueThe paper is one of the first to explore the curvilinear association between educational diversity and social network structure.Social implicationsBy exploring the relation between diversity and social network structures, these results increase understanding of how to address diversity issues at the societal level.