Explain the difference between objective and perceived diversity in teams
How does diversity influence an individuals commitment to a team
How does diversity influence a teams functioning and task performance
Objective diversity
Perceived diversity
Actual differences in member characteristics
Based on the perceptions of individuals instead of actual differences
"The degree to which members are aware of one another differences"
Broken into three focal points
Self to team dissimilairity
Perceived sub group splits
Perceived team heterogeneity
Faultline theory, where small portions of the group are seen as being different, - these generally predict negative outcomes
Reduced levels of cohesion
Issues exchanging ideas and information
Low levels of identification
This is how different the individual perceives themselves to be from the team and their position in the group relative to others
This is where the extent of the groups individual make up and differences is valued
Reduces biases
Encourages constructive conflict
Increase in elaboration of task specific information
Additional capabilities and viewpoints
Diverse expectations and social needs
High self to team dissimilarity results in
Increases in voluntary turnover
Low social exchanges with co-workers
Low commitment
Increases of perceived discrimination
Lower helping behaviour
Increased work withdrawal
This can be moderated by the context, for highly interdpendant tasks there was no change, for non-interdependant tasks there was a lack of helping behaviour
Higher levels of conflict between sub-groups
Sub-group formation negatively related to performance quality
Perceived heterogeneity has mixed reviews
High perceived heterogeneity within a team is perceived to improve a firms performance
This is contrasted by another finding that perceived heterogeneity results in lower quality strategic goals