Team Belonging: Integrating Teamwork and Diversity Training Through Emotions

Abstract

With the worldwide focus shifting toward important questions of what diversity means to society, organizations are attempting to keep up with employees’ needs to feel recognized and belong. Given that traditionally team and diversity trainings are provided separately, with different theoretical backgrounds and goals, they are often misaligned and ineffective. We review 339 empirical articles depicting a team, diversity, or emotional management training to extract themes and determine which methods are most effective. Although research has demonstrated the importance of belonging for providing positive workplace outcomes, we found that the traditional design of these trainings and lack of emotional management prevent a balance between team and diversity goals, preventing belonging. We propose an integrative training with emotional management to help teams foster optimal belonging, where members can unite together through their differences. Accordingly, our themes inform this training model that can inspire future research into more effective training.

Performing in diverse settings: A diversity, equity, and inclusion approach to culture

“…Emotional management has also been identified as key to developing a sense of belonging that unites teams despite their diversity, reconciling the two goals of team training (i.e., collectiveness) and diversity training (i.e., distinctiveness). Rather than solely focusing on being in sync with each other, the complementary components of emotional management provide the necessary tools to allow diverse teams to tap into their members’ uniqueness while still fostering a sense of belongingness that can empower them to leverage their resources (Davis et al, 2022). Expanding this idea to a cross-cultural setting, the unfamiliarity with dissimilar others’ cultural backgrounds can greatly increase anxiety.…”

Perk or Peril? Making Sense of Member Differences When Interorganizational Collaboration Begins

“…In the following, we delineate how a sensemaking perspective can complement current ambitions of studies on perceived otherness. Furthermore, we delve deeper into conversations on coorientation and representation dynamics (Koschmann, 2016) and link our work to the recently sketched concepts of distinctive and differential belonging (Davis et al, 2022). We end by outlining possibilities for future research and practical implications.…”

“…In many ways, professionals working in heterogenous, difference-filled teams need to be able to unite, coordinate, and collaborate through their otherness (Farchi et al, 2022). Davis et al (2022) have therefore argued that groups need to move from what they call “differential belonging” toward “distinctive belonging” (both p. 91). The former stresses becoming aware of differences, but it generally results in separation as it does not stretch beyond recognizing otherness.…”

“…Findings illustrate the varied differences that interviewees noted and explicate the sensemaking practices and starting points that animated how differences were perceived, interpreted, and valued as helping or hindering collaborative practice. In the discussion section, we reflect on our sensemaking approach to perceived otherness, nuance the workings of coorientation and representation dynamics in interorganizational collectives (Koschmann, 2016), and connect our insights to the recently proposed concepts of differential and distinctive belonging (Davis et al, 2022).…”

“…Collaborators must switch back and forth between these aspects (plus other distinctions) and their collective work so that they can connect and relate based on the differences they bring together in their group. In working together, instead of thinking that differences should be blended so they are no longer distinctly identifiable, echoing Davis et al (2022) appeal for distinctive belonging, the right mindset is that it is beneficial for differences to be salient and upheld, with solid connections established between them.…”