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There is a lot of evidence that diverse teams outperform homogenous work teams, in a wide variety of contexts (Levine et al., 2014; Phillips et al., 2009; Sommers, 2006). Diversity means there are more diverse perspectives represented which tends to lead to better decision-making (Rink & Ellemers, 2010; Phillips e al., 2009). Also, diverse teams process information more carefully (Sommers et al., 2008), are more innovative (Diaz-Garcia, 2015; Nathan & Lee, 2013), and are more likely to engage in productive cognitive conflict (Jehn, 1995).
The benefits of diverse work teams should be the same for students – greater performance and learning. Further, it is important to expose students to diverse others in teams and teach them how to work through their differences, as it is likely that their future workplaces will be diverse. In our teaching experience, we have found that when students are able to choose their own teams, they tend to form teams of homogenous others – teaming up with students they already know and like rather than choosing to learn from others who are unknown and possibly different. We have found that in order for students to experience diverse teams, we need to offer guidance on how build those teams, even doing it for them. But we need more than diversity. We need inclusion as well. If we create teams composed of diverse individuals, often the minority members feel unwilling or unable to speak up which means we lose the value that diversity provides. We need to provide some extra support for those teams to help them become inclusive.
Building diverse teams isn’t without risk. They can have lower satisfaction (Jackson et al., 1991) and more interpersonal conflict than homogenous teams (Jehn et al., 1999) without proper support. One must emphasize inclusion, as well as diversity, to create the highest performing teams. Building an inclusive team means that you are creating a supportive environment where everyone’s voice is welcome and everyone feels like they belong.
Inclusive practices can maximize the positive effects of diversity and reduce the negative impacts. Inclusive teams exist when “individuals of all backgrounds…are fairly treated, valued for who they are and included in core decision making” (Nishii, 2013, p. 1754). Inclusive team practices lead to a reduction of conflict and increase in satisfaction (Nishii, 2013). One way to help diverse teams create a more inclusive environment is through helping groups develop and use what is called the “integration-and-learning perspective” which helps groups frame diversity as a valuable resource for learning from others (Ely & Thomas, 2001). In particular, groups are encouraged to openly discuss different points of view with others and explicitly draw on their cultural experiences (Ely & Thomas, 2001). Further, another avenue for helping diverse teams to become more inclusive is through the development of psychological safety. Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team environment is safe for interpersonal risk taking and teams that have high levels of psychological safety feel free to openly contribute to the group discussion (Edmondson, 1999).
Tips for creating inclusive teams:
Keep teams small.
Smaller team size allows for students to build and manage interpersonal relationships in the group and make it easier for people to identify with, and perform, key roles. It allows them to be heard. Ideal team size is between 3-5 members.
Try not to split diverse members up and divide them among teams.
When possible, you should not put only one minority member on a team. The inclination is often to spread minority members out across teams to expose as many members to diverse views as possible. However, this tends to fail to produce desired results as the minority member often feels unable to speak up when they are outnumbered. Instead, think about putting pairs of diverse others together – for example, two women or two international students on a team of 4. Support systems help diverse members feel included and lead to more engagement.
Define clear norms and roles at the beginning of the process.
Norms help students understand desired behaviors in the group and roles give students a job to do for the team. Both help clarify expectations for students and allow them to fully participate in the process. Have students explicitly discuss what it means to be a good team member and set norms and roles around those behaviors.
Have your groups spend some time socializing.
When teams spend time engaged in purely social activities they have greater engagement, cohesion, and identification with team goals leading to increased participation of all members as well as greater commitment to group goals.
Be sure that everyone has a voice.
When a team member can contribute to the team and they feel that their contributions are valued, they are more likely to participate fully in the team process. Further, this makes sure that diverse perspectives are shared. Some methods for helping with this range from informal methods like encouraging deliberate turn taking where everyone shares for 2-3 minutes to more formal methods like dialectical inquiry (which divides groups into subgroups to develop ideas and challenges to other subgroups ideas) or devil’s advocacy or even using technologies that encourage inclusive discussions (like parlayideas.com)
It is not enough for faculty to just create diverse teams, they also need to create the conditions for inclusivity. It just takes a few thoughtful interventions for faculty to help students build and maintain inclusive teams. While it does take some additional effort to help manage and monitor the payoffs in terms of both team experience and performance will be well worth it.
References
Díaz-García, C., González-Moreno, A., & Sáez-Martínez, F.J. 2013. Gender diversity within R&D teams: Its impact on radicalness of innovation. Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice, 15(2): 149-160.
Edmondson, A. 1999. Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.
Ely, R. J., & Thomas, D. A. 2001. Cultural Diversity at Work: The Effects of Diversity Perspectives on Work Group Processes and Outcomes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 46(2), 229–273.
Jackson, S. E., Brett, J. F., Sessa, V. I., Cooper, D. M., Julin, J. A., & Peyronnin, K. 1991. Some differences make a difference: Individual dissimilarity and group heterogeneity as correlates of recruitment, promotions, and turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(5), 675–689.
Jehn, K. A. (1995). A multi-method examination of the benefits and detriments of intragroup conflict. Administrative Science Quarterly, 256-282.
Jehn, K.A., Northcraft, G.B., & Neale, M. 1999. Why differences make a difference: A field study of diversity, and performance in work groups. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(4), 741– 764.
Levine, S.S., Apfelbaum, E.P., Bernard, M., Bartelt, V.L., Zajac, E.J., & Stark, D. 2014. Ethnic diversity deflates price bubbles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, 18524–18529.
Nathan, M. and Lee, N. 2013. Cultural Diversity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: Firm-level Evidence from London. Economic Geography 89, 367–394.
Nishii, L. H. 2013. The Benefits of Climate for Inclusion for Gender-Diverse Groups. Academy of Management Journal, 56(6), 1754–1774.
Phillips, K, Liljenquist, K., & Neale, M. 2009. Is the Pain Worth the Gain? The Advantages and Liabilities of Agreeing With Socially Distinct Newcomers. Personality & social psychology bulletin, 35, 336-350.
Rink, F., & Ellemers, N. 2010. Benefiting from deep-level diversity: How congruence between knowledge and decision rules improves team decision making and team perceptions. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 13(3), 345-359.
Sommers, S. R. 2006. On racial diversity and group decision making: Identifying multiple effects of racial composition on jury deliberations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(4), 597–612.
Sommers, S. R., Warp, L. S., & Mahoney, C. C. 2008. Cognitive effects of racial diversity: White individuals’ information processing in heterogeneous groups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(4), 1129-1136.
This article was written by Tracey Rockett, Ph.D., Professor of Management Practice, Neeley School of Business and Stacy Landreth Grau, Ph.D., Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation Practice, Neeley School of Business and Director, IdeaFactory, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, for the Fall 2022 Issue of Insights.