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Team Diversity

Team diversity refers to the differences between team members on any attribute that may lead a single member of the group to perceive any other member of the group as being different from the self of this particular member. These attributes and perceptions refer to all dimensions people can differ on, such as age, gender, ethnicity, religious and functional background, personality, skills, abilities, beliefs, and attitudes.

Conceptual Overview

The occurrence of diverse teams is widely spread in organizations, with such teams operating at all organizational levels: Top management teams, production teams, task forces, or any other type of team can be diverse. Team diversity has implications for team processes, team and individual performance, and the well-being of team members. It is therefore important to understand the consequences of team diversity, especially in the light of an increasing prevalence of diverse teams. Team working itself appears to be gaining in popularity, while at the same time the workforce is becoming more diverse. For example, due to an aging workforce, organizations will depend more on retaining their older employees in the future, contributing to higher age diversity. There is also more use of cross-functional teams to integrate expertise of employees across broad specializations. Furthermore, where organizations establish subsidiaries beyond national borders, cultural diversity is a reality where teams bring together employees from the parent company and the subsidiary. Hence, the existence of diverse teams has become an organizational fact and we can expect more diverse teams to exist in the future.

Empirical findings about diversity's impact on work group outcomes and individual outcomes are mixed, with evidence suggesting both negative and positive diversity effects. It is therefore important to understand how to manage diversity such that one can capitalize on its potential benefit and reduce negative effects.

Taxonomies of Diversity

The various diversity characteristics appear to have different effects on team and individual outcomes. Several attempts have therefore been made to systematize the manifold appearances of diversity, with most research using the following taxonomies: (1) surfacelevel versus deep-level diversity, (2) task-relevant versus task-irrelevant diversity, and (3) actual versus perceived diversity.

The first taxonomy distinguishes attributes that are at the surface level of a person from attributes that are at the deep level of the person. Surface-level diversity refers to characteristics such as age, gender, or ethnicity; they can be readily detected when first meeting a person and refer predominantly to demographic attributes. In contrast, deep-level diversity refers to attributes that are detected only when people interact over a period of time with each other (e.g., values, personality, or beliefs).

The second approach refers to the role of diversity attributes for team performance and therefore differentiates task-relevant from task-irrelevant diversity. The former refers to attributes such as functional, occupational, and industry background or educational level and educational content. They reflect differences in knowledge, skills, and ability (KSA), and in information, opinion, or experience; these are attributes that are relevant to the task. Similarly, tenure in industry and in the company could also entail diversity in task-relevant issues. The second category, task-irrelevant diversity, comprises demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, ethnicity, cultural background) or personality variables. What might appear at first glance as a straightforward way of classifying is on closer inspection a more complex matter. The specific attributes do not fall exclusively into one or the other category. For example, depending on the task, age and gender can be task relevant, and likewise, the functional background and the associated expertise may not be relevant to a given task.

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