Believing shapes seeing: The impact of diversity beliefs on the construal of group composition

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that diversity effects depend on how group members perceive their group’s composition. However, what determines how diversity is perceived is unclear. We argue that the way in which group members construe their group’s diversity is shaped by group members’ beliefs about the value in diversity. Focusing on groups with objective subgroups, we show in two studies that the more group members value diversity, the more likely they are to construe their diversity in terms of individual differences and the less likely they are to construe their diversity in terms of subgroups. We also show that diversity construal is only affected by diversity beliefs during intellectual tasks (where diversity matters), but not during physical tasks.

That’s not my place: The interacting effects of faultlines, subgroup size, and social competence on social loafing behaviour in work groups

“…This finding is in line with Joshi and Roh's (2009) proposition that contextual effects should always be taken into account when studying the effects of team diversity. Our findings therefore not only corroborate a moderator-approach to diversity and faultline research (e.g., Homan, Greer, & Koning, 2010), but also speak in favour of multilevel approaches to organizational phenomena (Kozlowski, 2012). The finding that team diversity affects different team members in different ways also …”

People perception: Social vision of groups and consequences for organizing and interacting

“…Homogenity is the other dimension (along with hierarchy) theorized to be the most important and ubiquitous property of groups (Gruenfeld & Tiedens, 2010), and research has recently demonstrated that perceived diversity can have important effects on teams, independent of objective diversity (Homan, Greer, Jehn, & Koning, 2010;see Shemla et al, 2014 for a review). According to the SEA model, visual perceptions of homogeneity should influence judgments of group homogeneity or diversity.…”

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