Diverse Work Groups Research Articles

Unpacking the relationship between cultural diversity and workgroup creativity

PurposeThis study aimed to illustrate the conditions under which cultural diversity enhances workgroup creativity. It does so by investigating the impact of ethnic diversity on workgroup creativity through the mediating mechanisms of cognitive diversity and information elaboration, while also exploring the role of inclusive leadership in this process.Design/methodology/approachMulti-source data was collected from a sample of 338 employees nested within 56 workgroups across three distinct organizations. Conditional process analysis was used to empirically test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that ethnic diversity, a surface-level cultural attribute, contributed to diversity in deep-level cognitive resources, and that workgroups were able to capitalize on these variations in deep-level cognitive resources to enhance their creativity when they engaged in the elaboration of task-relevant information. Results also demonstrated that the effective management of workgroup processes through inclusive leadership helped materialize the performance-promoting effects of cultural diversity. Overall, the findings support the notion that cultural diversity is indeed beneficial to workgroups.Originality/valuePrior research has typically examined cultural diversity in workgroups from the perspective of either surface-level or deep-level cultural attributes, leading to conflicting findings. Our study takes a multifaceted approach to cultural diversity and its influence on workgroup creativity, offering a more nuanced understanding. Additionally, by integrating the concept of inclusive leadership, a relatively new conceptualization of leadership specifically relevant to diverse workgroups, we clarified strategies for fostering positive workgroup performance.

A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF STUDIES ON DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

The present study seeks to perform a bibliometric examination of global publications on diversity management from 1990 to 2023. The objective is to scrutinize advancements in the field and present prospective researchers with fresh avenues for exploration. A total of 15727 records were found in the Wos database in all languages and by the topic of all types of publications in which the keywords "diversity management", "relational demography", "demographic diversity", "workforce diversity", "cultural diversity" and "workgroup diversity" were mentioned in articles published between 1990 and November 2023. Then, with the restrictions applied, 3555 articles were subjected to Citation, Bibliographic Coupling and co-citation analyses. The VOSviewer software package (Version1.6.9) was used to create bibliometric maps and networks. 2020 was the year in which the most articles were published with 277 articles. The study identified Syed Jawa as the most productive author in diversity management research, with "Equality Diversity and Inclusion" as the most productive journal, and "cultural diversity", "diversity" and "diversity management" as the most frequently used keywords. The articles by Vertovec(2007), Jehn(1999), and Harrison(1998) stand out as the three most impactful in relation to citation count. Five clusters were identified according to the citation analysis. Developed countries were found to be the most influential in diversity management research. This study adds to the existing body of literature by offering an extensive bibliometric evaluation of diversity management studies. The focus is on identifying the most productive articles, authors, journals, institutions, sponsors, and countries, while also conducting keyword analysis.

Made Better by Others? When Having More Diverse Colleagues Improves Individual Outcomes

Research suggests that workgroup diversity influences various group and organizational-level outcomes. However, few studies consider its impact at the individual level, particularly in knowledge-related work, where workers have considerable discretion in making decisions. Our study aims to fill this gap by examining two significant types of workgroup diversity—gender diversity, a kind of bio-demographic diversity, and specialization diversity, a kind of job-related diversity—in a healthcare setting. Using detailed data on the entire patient population of Florida hospitals (10.14 million patients), including 25,187 physicians across 240 hospitals over a period of 4 years, we find that physicians who work in departments with more diverse colleagues (in terms of gender and specialization) have better patient outcomes, for example, a shorter stay, lower cost of treatment and increased likelihood of discharge to home. We find that the impacts of colleague diversity are contingent on departmental focus. Our research shows that specialization diversity, a type of job-related and deep-level difference, especially helps physicians who work in more specialization-diverse departments perform better when their departments are less focused. In contrast, we find that physicians in more gender-diverse departments perform even better when in more focused departments. Our results are robust to alternate explanations and biases arising from patient selection, population demographics, and endogeneity in diversity measures. Our study adds to a relatively small literature in operations management that considers how workgroup diversity (beyond diversity in on-the-job experience) might influence individual performance. Our research also contributes to the emerging conversation on why hiring managers should actively work toward improving workplace diversity.

Workforce Diversity, Organisational Culture and Performance of Some Selected Multinational Food and Beverage Companies in Lagos Metropolis

The disruptions in the global economy introduced by covid-19 pandemic have foisted on organizational management the adoption of policies and initiatives of managing their diverse work groups. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the influence of Workforce Diversity Dimensions (WFDDs) of sex, age and educational attainment on organisational performance (OP) and also the mediating effect of organisational cultural values (achievement values, employee involvement and equity) on the relationship between WFDDs and OP. Descriptive survey design was employed and a sample 464 respondents were drawn using Yemane (1967) method from among 3,280 employees of four selected Multi-National Companies (MNC(s)) in the Food and Beverage sub-sector of manufacturing companies operating in Lagos Metropolis. Data collected were analysed using both simple and multiple hierarchical regression statistical analysis. Results obtained of hypothesis One revealed that work force diversity dimensions (WFDDs) insignificantly influenced organizational performance (OP) with coefficient of determination at R2 = 0.0003. When the interaction term organizational cultural values were added to the regression model (MODEL 2), there was a significant increase in organizational performance of 16.3% (Δ R2 =0.163, p = 0.000) because R2 increased from 0.003 to 0.166. This result shows that organizational cultural values have enhancing effect on the relationship between workforce diversity dimensions on organizational performance. The study concluded that there should be a shift from that assumption suggesting direct positive effect of workforce diversity on performance. Rather, the context of the organisation in terms of the cultural values it emplaces will have any of the positive or negative consequences on the organisation performance. It is also suggested that leadership role and organisational business strategies can be investigated for their mediating contribution on the relationship between WFD and OP as further studies.

From cultural intelligence to workgroup inclusion through synchrony preference and perceived workgroup similarity

Inclusion is an important consideration for international firms to fully realize their strategic human resources, yet there is limited research on how international business competencies relate to perceived inclusion. This study proposes and tests a social identity-based framework about how cultural intelligence relates to perceived inclusion through the mediating effects of synchrony preference and perceived workgroup similarity (in work styles and cultures/ethnicities). Support was found for this model based on data from a three-wave time-lagged study of working professionals. These findings offer theoretical contributions to several literatures and provide international organizations with practical knowledge about perceived inclusion in diverse workgroups.

The Motivation to Be Inclusive: Understanding How Diversity Self-Efficacy Impacts Leader Effectiveness in Racially Diverse Workgroups

Diversity management is becoming integral to leaders’ success, given the influx of diversity in today’s organizations and workgroups. Yet, little is known about why some leaders and not others are effective at leading a racially diverse group of employees. To shed light on this important conundrum, we integrate social cognitive theory with the categorization-elaboration model of workgroup diversity (Van Knippenberg, De Dreu, & Homan, 2004) to advance a theoretical model that identifies how leaders’ diversity self-efficacy may be positively related to followers’ evaluations of leader effectiveness. We further hypothesize that leaders’ inclusive leadership behavior explains why those leaders who feel efficacious in leading diverse work groups would be deemed more effective, particularly when these leaders’ workgroups are more racially diverse. Based on a sample of 101 group leaders and 1470 healthcare professionals who worked in interdependent workgroups to provide quality patient care (Study 1) and a sample of 135 leader-follower dyads from various industries (Study 2), our data show that leaders’ diversity self-efficacy was more strongly related to followers’ evaluation of leader effectiveness when there were higher levels of racial diversity within workgroups. The data also indicate that the extent to which leaders engage in inclusive leadership behavior can explain why leaders’ diversity self-efficacy beliefs are positively related to followers’ evaluations of leader effectiveness and that the mediation of inclusive leadership behavior is stronger when workgroups are more racially diverse. Our study highlights the importance of leaders’ diversity self-efficacy beliefs in fostering an inclusive and effective work environment.

Work group diversity in professional football: An individual‐level approach to the effects of diversity in organizations

AbstractObjectiveAlthough there is a huge literature examining how diversity affects group performance, an important limitation is the lack of evidence at the employee level. This article tries to fill this gap. We focus on professional football given the high ethnic diversity of football squads, the nonexistence of language barriers to hire players, and the granularity of data.MethodsRelying on data from 1528 professional footballers joining a new club in the 2021–2022 season in five European countries, we run ordinary least squares cross‐sectional regressions with standard errors clustered by club.ResultsWe find that ethnic backgrounds do not make a difference in the performance of professional football players in their new clubs. However, newcomer players with a different ethnic background than natives in their new clubs do better the younger they are and when subgroup imbalance in the squad is high.ConclusionOur results support the approach integrating the social categorization and the information/decision‐making perspectives. From the players’ recruitment or renovation perspective, our results can help managers and coaches to make correct recruitment decisions.

Cross-level Effects of Diversity Climate on Employee Organizational Identification: Evidence from Law Enforcement Units

While benefits of psychological diversity climate have been enumerated in public administration literature, less is known about the effects of diversity climate at the aggregate level. To fill this gap, this study implements a multi-level analytical approach to examine the relationship between workgroup diversity climate and employee organizational identification in the law enforcement sector. To estimate this relationship, I employ a multi-wave population survey data collected from 1,519 employees in 136 units of a law enforcement agency in the United States. Results suggest that workgroup diversity climate was positively associated with organizational identification. However, this relationship was found more salient for White employees than employees of color. This study discusses the implications for public management research and diversity management practices in the public sector.

Effects of Inclusive Leadership on Quality of Care: The Mediating Role of Psychological Safety Climate and Perceived Workgroup Inclusion.

The aim of the study is to investigate the multilevel effects of the inclusiveness of workgroup leaders on quality of care by intervening through a "psychological safety climate" at the group level and "perceived workgroup inclusion" at the individual level within professionally diverse workgroups of healthcare professionals. Data are collected from 305 healthcare professionals nested in 61 workgroups and 305 patients treated by the same workgroups working in public-sector hospitals in Pakistan. Hypothesized relationships are tested through multilevel analyses using Mplus 7. The results of the study show that inclusive leadership can enhance the quality of care delivered by multiprofessional workgroups of healthcare professionals through perceived workgroup inclusion. Further, the psychological safety climate does not mediate the relationship between inclusive leadership and quality of care individually, but it transmits the effects of inclusive leadership through perceived workgroup inclusion on quality of care. The results of the study suggest that the inclusiveness of workgroup leaders, the psychological safety climate, and perceived workgroup inclusion can create safe and inclusive interpersonal mechanisms that play a key role in transmitting the positive effects of inclusive leadership on quality of care.

Board tenure diversity and investment efficiency: A global analysis

Using an international sample of firms in 45 countries, we find that board tenure diversity is positively associated with investment efficiency. We alleviate concerns about endogeneity by using a firm fixed effects model, a two-stage least squares regression, and a matching approach. Additional analyses show that the relationship between board tenure diversity and investment efficiency is stronger when the directors have longer tenure and when firms face financial constraints. In addition, better institutional quality, greater shareholder protection, and higher societal trust positively moderate the beneficial impact of board tenure diversity on investment efficiency. Overall, our results highlight the benefits of board tenure diversity in regards to work group diversity and access to resources when making corporate investment decisions.

Cultural Intelligence and Workplace Inclusion

Increasing diversity in workgroups and workplaces has accentuated the importance of inclusion, which allows to leverage diversity such that distinct perspectives and approaches are recognized and respected, flexibility and synergy are encouraged, information and resources are equitably available, and everyone can contribute. This work makes a case that the very concept of inclusion in diverse workgroups and workplaces might be viewed and enacted differently by diverse members due to variations in their culturally-shaped perceptions and behaviors. It is suggested that to reconcile these variations in perceptions and behaviors to achieve greater inclusion in workgroups and organizations, individuals must develop cultural intelligence (CQ) that will allow them to be aware of differences, adjust and regulate their perspectives and approaches to fit diverse contexts, have flexibility and empathy to be able to learn from interactions with different others, and contribute. Implications for research and practice will also be considered.

Boosting creativity in functional diverse work groups: The importance of help-seeking behavior and openness to experience

ABSTRACT Organizations increasingly require employees to be proactive and creative problem solvers in their daily work. We employ a multilevel perspective (i.e., weekly activity level, group/context level, and personal level) to understand employees’ day-to-day creative process. Specifically, we examine whether weekly help-seeking behaviour is positively related to weekly creativity and to what extent this relationship is affected by work group functional diversity and employees’ level of openness to experience. We recruited 368 medical employees nested within 42 work groups over four consecutive weeks. The results showed that help-seeking behaviour was not related to this week’s creativity, but was positively related to next week’s creativity when work group functional diversity was high. Moreover, this lagged effect was even stronger when simultaneously employees scored high on openness to experience. Our findings suggest that help-seeking behaviour sparks creativity after a period of incubation. Furthermore, employees’ creative performance reaches the highest level when they engage in help-seeking behaviour in a more functionally diverse work environment and simultaneously are more open-minded to different experiences. We thus present an integrative model (i.e., what actions individuals engage in, which circumstances individuals are exposed to, and what personal abilities individuals are capable of) to understand employees’ creativity.

Incentive distributions in heterogeneous work groups

We use fine-grained federal personnel data to examine how work group diversity is related to the distribution of monetary rewards among employees who are working collectively on a team project. We focus on two types of diversity—demographic and functional—and hypothesize that the former will be positively associated with egalitarianism in reward distributions while the latter will be negatively associated with egalitarianism. Our theory is that managers’ distributional decisions will account for the likelihood of meeting with disagreement, and that this likelihood covaries in different ways with demographic and functional diversity. We argue that managers of demographically heterogeneous groups will deploy egalitarian rewards to avoid exacerbating intra-group conflict along demographic fault-lines. By contrast, managers of functionally heterogeneous groups will be able to justify non-egalitarian rewards because group members accept that functional heterogeneity is associated with intra-group status differences. Additionally, we argue that functional heterogeneity can, by legitimizing intra-group status differences that are correlated with race and gender, activate the negative potential for demographic diversity to be a driver of inequality. Our results suggest that functional heterogeneity and demographic heterogeneity are negatively associated with egalitarianism in group rewards, and that functional heterogeneity interacts with demographic heterogeneity to further reduce egalitarianism.

Diversity Climate and Discrimination: The Moderating Roles of Social Identity and Team Composition

Many scholars have highlighted the importance of workforce diversity in advancing public organizations’ legitimacy and responsiveness. During the past several decades, diversity recruitment efforts have considerably increased the ratios of women and ethnic minorities in the public sector. However, an increased ratio of minority employees may increase between-subgroup tension and discrimination within an organization, which has negative implications for employee work attitudes and well-being. This research attempts to understand the role of a positive diversity climate in reducing discrimination based on evidence from the law enforcement sector. Specially, this research examines the relationship between diversity climate and experienced discrimination at the team- and individual-level, using population data collected through multiple surveys from a law enforcement state agency. Results provide support for the relationship between workgroup diversity climate and group-level reports of discrimination, which is contingent on gender composition. Specifically, workgroup diversity climate has a more substantial impact on group-level reports of discrimination in a unit of a high ratio of women. Also, workgroup diversity climate has a negative association with individual reports of discrimination for women and nonwhite employees but not for men or white employees.

Fostering innovative behavior in the aviation industry: The role of perceived supervisor support and work group diversity

The research primarily seeks to understand how supervisor support can directly and indirectly enhance the service innovative behavior (SIB) of flight attendants via work engagement. Moreover, although there has been some research on the effect of group diversity on organizational performance, the results have not been consistent. Thus, this study addresses this gap by investigating how work group diversity can make variance in the relationship between work engagement and innovative behavior of flight attendants. The sample size of 242 flight attendants working at the central airport in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, has been taken for the study. To test hypotheses, structural equation modeling and bootstrapping were employed. This study provided an evidence for the positive nexus between perceived supervisor support and SIB. Additionally, the results shed light on a mediation mechanism of work engagement for the association between flight attendants’ perception of their supervisor and innovative behavior. Furthermore, tenure diversity and job position diversity in a work group were proved to play a moderating role in the relationship between work engagement and service innovative behavior. Specifically, flight attendants are more willing to exhibit innovative behaviors when working in a homogeneous group in terms of tenure and job position rather than in a heterogeneous group. The empirical results contributed to the diversity management literature and broadened the understanding of how to activate the service innovative behavior of employees. From a managerial perspective, managers should pay attention to the characteristics of employees when organizing teamwork. AcknowledgmentThe authors are grateful to the anonymous referees of the journal for their extremely useful suggestions for improving the quality of this paper.

Seizing the benefits of age diversity: could empowering leadership be the answer?

PurposeAcknowledging that only examining the main effects of diversity may be limiting, the authors explore integrating van Knippenberg et al.'s (2004) categorization–elaboration model (CEM) of workgroup diversity as a linchpin in the relationship between empowering leadership and performance in age-diverse work groups. While prior research has focused almost exclusively on the impact of transformational leadership in diverse contexts, few studies have found the positive effects of transformational leadership to be diminished in certain age-diverse contexts. Consequently, the authors investigate whether empowering leadership may be a better approach in this context due to its emphasis on accommodating and participative behaviors.Design/methodology/approachUsing survey data gathered from work group members across a wide array of industries (N = 214), the authors test for the moderating effects of empowering leadership on the relationship between age diversity and work group performance and its indirect relationship via information elaboration (while controlling for transformational leadership).FindingsEmpowering leadership positively moderated the direct relationship between age diversity and work group performance and the indirect relationship via information elaboration, whereas transformational leadership had the opposite effect. “Coaching” and “showing concern/interacting with the team” drove the positive effects of empowering leadership, and “personal recognition” and “intellectual stimulation” predicted the negative effects of transformational leadership.Practical implicationsThis research offers insights into how managers can lead age-diverse work groups more effectively (i.e. by utilizing an empowering as opposed to a transformational leadership approach, with a particular emphasis on “coaching” and “showing concern/interacting with the team” behaviors).Originality/valueThe study identifies an “alternative” moderating contingency to the age diversity–performance relationship (empowering leadership).

Editor’s Comments: Intentional Inclusion of Diverse Voices and Global Perspectives at AMR

Academy of Management ReviewVol. 46, No. 1 From the EditorEditor’s Comments: Intentional Inclusion of Diverse Voices and Global Perspectives at AMRSherry M. B. ThatcherSherry M. B. ThatcherEditorPublished Online:14 Jan 2021https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2020.0480AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsDownload CitationsAdd to favoritesTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail View articleREFERENCESBarney, J. 2018. Editor’s comments: Theory contributions and the AMR review process. Academy of Management Review, 43: 1–4.Link , Google ScholarNishii, L. H. 2013. The benefits of climate for inclusion for gender-diverse groups. Academy of Management Journal, 56: 1754–1774.Link , Google ScholarRagins, B. R. 2015. Editor’s comments: Developing our authors. Academy of Management Review, 40(1): 1–8.Link , Google ScholarShore, L. M., Randel, A. E., Chung, B. G., Dean, M. A., Ehrhart, K. H., & Singh, G. 2011. Inclusion and diversity in work groups: A review and model for future research. Journal of Management, 37: 1262–1289. Google ScholarSuddaby, R. 2012. Editor’s comments. Academy of Management Review, 37: 6–9.Link , Google ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byTheorizing From Emerging Markets: Challenges, Opportunities, and Publishing AdviceShad Morris, Ruth V. Aguilera, Greg Fisher and Sherry M. B. Thatcher11 January 2023 | Academy of Management Review, Vol. 48, No. 1It Takes a Village: A Practical Guide to Reviewing for AMRJoanna T. Campbell and Donald E. Conlon29 April 2021 | Academy of Management Review, Vol. 46, No. 2 Vol. 46, No. 1 Permissions Metrics in the past 12 months History Published online 14 January 2021 Published in print 1 January 2021 Information© Academy of Management ReviewAcknowledgmentsI would like to thank the following individuals who graciously gave their time to help me sharpen my thoughts on these important issues: John Amis, Ruth Aguilera, Nancy Buchan, Jonathan Bundy, Joanna Campbell, Don Conlon, Greg Fisher, Patrick Haack, Rich Makadok, Alyson Meister, Carrie Queenan, Belle Rose Ragins, and Abbie Shipp.Download PDF

Leading Professionally Diverse Workgroups of Healthcare Professionals for Improving Quality of Care

The purpose of this paper is to unfold the internal dynamics of a workgroup of healthcare professionals and to identify leadership behaviors that can enhance the benefits of professional diversity to improve the quality of care. The present study explores the recent literature on leadership, professional diversity within workgroups of healthcare professionals, and their performance outcomes especially the quality of care. The finding reveals that the sub-group categorization is salient diversity

Team Diversity on Team Effectiveness: the case of the Construction industry in the Ashanti Region

Diverse workgroups and team management are some of the most challenging and pressing challenges organizations face in these modern times (TsuiandGutek, 1999). Companies, however, recognize the need to leverage the diversity of their employees to sustain competitive advantages in a global workplace (Offerman and Gowing, 1990; Thomas and Ely, 1996; Yaprak, 2002). Studies have generally shown that diverse teams mostly perform better, but diversity in teams can negatively affect team effectiveness. This study explored the effect of team diversity on team effectiveness. The study reviewed the literature on the concepts of diversity and team effectiveness. Data were collected via questionnaire and semistructured interviews from one hundred and sixty-four (164) professionals from the construction industry. The mixed methodology was used to collect and analyze the data. The study findings revealed that the construction industry recognizes team diversity a valid contribution to ensuring team effectiveness. Also, diversity in gender, tribe, and religion does not affect team output and the final project negatively but instead improves cohesiveness or collaboration among team members. The study recommended that there should be a well-defined conflict management policy in the construction industry that will help track grievances to resolve them early.

Workgroup Diversity and Employees Work Performance: Insights into Lebanon

Workgroup Diversity and Employees Work Performance: Insights into Lebanon