The influence of ethnic diversity on leadership, group process, and performance: an examination of learning teams

Watson, Warren E.; Johnson, Lynn Nations; Zgourides, George D.

doi:10.1016/s0147-1767(01)00032-3

Cited by 125 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…It is therefore possible that leaders, regardless of their own ethnicity, interact with ethnic-homogenous and ethnic-heterogeneous teams differently. For example, different leadership styles have been associated with diverse versus non-diverse teams (Watson, Johnson, & Zgourides, 2002). Interacting with a more diverse team might be more demanding for a leader as he or she may need to adapt the manner interacting with members from different ethnic groups.…”

Section: Hypotheses Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting on the Same Page: How Leaders Build Trust Consensus in Teams and Its Consequences

Fulmer

2015

AMPROC

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Existing organizational research has demonstrated that team members' trust in leaders is positively related to a team's bottom-line outcomes. However, little is known about how collective trust in leaders develops among team members. To address this gap, the present study examines the effects of multiple emergent processes on the extent to which team members exhibit consensus in trust in their leader. In particular, it was proposed that the most important factors for the emergence, and the degree of consensus, of collective trust in leaders should have the same referent target as the collective construct (i.e., the leader) and concern behaviors that involve interactions between the leader and team members. Thus, the leader behavior and interactions variables of showing concern, leading by example, and monitoring were expected to exert stronger influence on the consensus in trust in leaders than leader attributes (ability and integrity) and team factors (open communication and demographic diversity). Further, the degree of consensus in trust in leaders was predicted to have both an independent and interaction effect with the mean level of trust in leaders in influencing team performance and voice behavior. Three waves of survey data were collected from teams with new leadership in a large academic military institution. Data from 719 team members from 105 teams were used to test these predictions by analyzing consensus concurrently and changes in consensus over time.The results generally supported the relative importance of leader showing concern and leading by example on the degree of consensus in trust in leaders in the concurrent model. For changes in consensus, leading by example was particularly important. In addition, while consensus was not independently related to the team performance and voice behaviors, it interacted with the mean level in influencing the outcomes in both the concurrent and change models. Taken together, the findings suggest that some leader behaviors are important for the development of collective trust or consensus in trust in leaders, and further suggest that consensus can act as a boundary condition for the effect of the mean level of trust in leaders on team outcomes. By focusing on the consensus in trust in leaders, this research begins to shed light on how consensus in trust develops among team members with respect to their leader and has implications for understanding trust, leadership, and emergence.

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Section: Hypotheses Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting on the Same Page: How Leaders Build Trust Consensus in Teams and Its Consequences

Fulmer

2015

AMPROC

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“…However, other studies have found that racially diverse groups may be better at generating creative ideas than homogeneous ones (McLeod & Lobel, 1992;McLeod et al, 1996), consider more information and perspectives (Sommers, 2006), facilitate positive learning behavior among team members (Gibson & Vermeulen, 2003), or increase morale within the group (Jehn, Northcraft, & Neale, 1999). Diverse groups may also outperform homogeneous ones after time on select outcomes (Carte & Chidambaram, 2004;Watson, Johnson, & Zgourides, 2002;Watson, Kumar, & Michaelson, 1993). Other research has found that diversity within groups may be associated with both positive and negative work group processes, and its effects may be too difficult to extricate within highly dynamic environments (Pelled, Eisenhardt, & Xin, 1999;Williams & O'Reilly, 1998) or may depend on the nature of the group task and other contextual factors (Maznevski, 1994;Thomas, Ravlin, & Wallace, 1996;Timmerman, 2000).…”

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confidence: 99%

Deliberation and Diversity: Perceptions of Small Group Discussions by Race and Ethnicity

Abdel-Monem

Bingham

Marincic

et al. 2010

Small Group Research

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One of the challenges facing public deliberation scholars and practitioners is to identify deliberative processes that address inequities in interaction and foster active participation among all members of ethnically or racially diverse groups. This study draws from cocultural communication theory and uses mixed methodology to examine the experiences of citizens assigned to racially/ ethnically diverse small groups who participated in “By the People: Dialogues in Democracy”—a national/local initiative and public deliberation event. One hundred participants in a local deliberation in Omaha, Nebraska, completed a postevent questionnaire and 20 participants were subsequently interviewed. Data were analyzed to compare the perceptions of White participants and participants of color (African American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian American). Analysis of variance indicated that participants of color perceived greater communication quality and group effectiveness and experienced more satisfaction with their small groups than did Whites. Both White interviewees and interviewees of color said they valued being exposed to diverse group members and perspectives, the respectful tone of the group interaction, the facilitators’ ability to guide the interaction, and the opportunity to learn. Consistent with cocultural communication theory, participants of color specially praised the equal opportunity to speak in their groups and the experience of being heard. The results fortify the importance for public deliberation practitioners to take concerted steps to ensure racial/ethnic diversity and egalitarian interaction of members in deliberative small groups.

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“…However, over time not only do these differences wash out, but they may become an asset for team results (Wagner, 1995). These findings come from teams that work together and receive feedback on particular team tasks (Watson et al, 2002). According to Michaelsen and Watson (1987), at the end of the learning team's life cycle, the advantage of multiple viewpoints due to cultural diversity has been shown to result in higher performance, which is in line with the demographic composition model.…”

Section: Ethnic Diversity In Teamsmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Student groups have become an integral part of the instructional process (Watson et al, 2002) and have been frequently used as an instructional method in the institutions of higher education. For instance, team learning (Michaelsen et al, 1982) and cooperative learning (Johnson and Johnson, 1992) have attracted scrutiny in recent research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic and gender diversity, process and performance in groups of business students in Sweden

Umans

Collin

Tagesson

2008

Intercultural Education

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This paper investigates the complex interrelation between ethnic and gender diversity, process and performance in groups of business students. The paper is based on an empirical survey of business students working on a complex assignment in groups of two to five in a small Swedish university. The results indicate that gender diversity leads to positive group outcomes, while ethnic diversity appears to create negative group outcomes. Intervening process variables, such as group communication, conflict and effectiveness in problem solving were not found to be influenced by diversity, or to influence group outcomes. While the non-influence of intervening variables can probably be explained by methodological difficulties, the negative outcome for ethnic diversity indicates a need to help students better manage ethnic diversity in order to reap its benefits.3

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The influence of ethnic diversity on leadership, group process, and performance: an examination of learning teams

Cited by 125 publications

References 20 publications

Getting on the Same Page: How Leaders Build Trust Consensus in Teams and Its Consequences

Getting on the Same Page: How Leaders Build Trust Consensus in Teams and Its Consequences

Deliberation and Diversity: Perceptions of Small Group Discussions by Race and Ethnicity

Ethnic and gender diversity, process and performance in groups of business students in Sweden

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