Diversity in Groups

Abstract

Diversity has the potential to either disrupt group functioning or, conversely, be the source of collective creativity and insight. These two divergent perspectives pose a paradox that has held the attention of scholars for many years. In response, researchers have marshaled evidence to specify the conditions under which diversity leads to more positive outcomes and explain why it does so under these conditions. After describing these foundational perspectives and more recent work that addresses this paradox, we outline several promising directions for research in this domain. We encourage researchers to develop integrative theoretical explanations, use new technologies to gain insight into group processes, study diversity in the context of virtual interaction, and take advantage of opportunities for cross‐disciplinary research.

Responsible innovation in organisations – unpacking the effects of leader trustworthiness and organizational culture on employee creativity

“…Unexpectedly, leader trustworthiness was found to dampen employee creativity and strengthen the positive associations of the market and hierarchy OCs with employee creativity. The strong positive association of the clan OC with employee creativity was found to be consistent with extant studies (Ashraf, Kadir, Pihie, & Rashid, 2013;Fernandes & Polzer, 2015) that focussed on the clan OC's (and its features) positive impact on employee creativity. However, our finding does stand in opposition to those of other studies (Naranjo-Valencia et al, 2016).…”

“…According to Cameron (2008), the employees within this OC quadrant are known to share many values. Fernandes and Polzer (2015) stressed that this fosters homogeneity within groups and it also provides flexibility for involvement and the easy exchange of creative ideas among organizational members. Ogbeibu et al (2020b) further supported that, for employee creativity to be engendered, ease of access needs to be given to enable the dissemination of creative ideas.…”

“…This is relevant, and a probable outcome of the clan OC (Cameron, 2008). Driving exchanges of values among diverse homogeneous groups in order to foster the diffusion of creative ideas may require the deliberate efforts of trustworthy leaders (Erturk & Albayrak, 2019;Fernandes & Polzer, 2015). This relates to the high expectations held by employees of leaders who are consistently perceived as mentors, coaches, or parent figures (Cameron & Quinn, 2008).…”

Inspiring Creativity in Diverse Organizational Cultures: An Expatriate Integrity Dilemma

“…This could be as a result of constant redundancies of shared ideas within respective homogenous clusters. It could also be due to dire lack of fresh ideas from a rather homogenous workforce (Fernandes & Polzer, 2015). Conversely, the adhocracy OC mirrors a culture that might strongly support creativity and innovativeness.…”

Organisational cultures and the evoked effects of leader ability on employee creativity

“…Investigating further into how the adhocracy OC type influences employee creativity could have advanced insights into how organisational leaders may develop and inspire risk taking and a creative workforce as prior research advocates their positive influences on employee creativity (Ogbeibu et al , 2020). Equally, the unique family-centred values found in the clan OC – that is argued to either positively or negatively impact employee creativity due to homogeneity of creative ideas or blind loyalty to leaders – have been overlooked by the CTIC (Fernandes and Polzer, 2015; Tang and Byrge, 2016).…”