What Can You Expect? The Influence of Gender Diversity in Dyads on Work Goal Expectancies and Subsequent Work Commitment

Abstract

In an experimental study ( N = 60) we showed that gender differences play an important role in the extent to which people expect work goal differences between themselves and their collaborating partner. Participants who interact with a same-sex partner expect this person to pursue the same work goal as the self, whereas those who interact with an opposite-sex partner expect this person to have a different work goal to the self. When these expectancies were confirmed, participants felt relatively little disappointment, developed a clear image of their partner, and felt committed toward future collaboration. However, an expectancy violation caused participants to respond relatively negatively on these measures. These effects are discussed in relation to expectancy violation and congruence theory.

A Dynamic Perspective on Diverse Teams: Moving from the Dual-Process Model to a Dynamic Coordination-based Model of Diverse Team Performance

“…shown that particularly in the micro-time scale, groups with surface-level diversity had more task engagement, shared more information, and expressed more dissenting opinions (see Phillips et al, 2004;Loyd, Wang, Phillips, & Lount, Jr., 2013;Rink & Ellemers, 2006). These findings suggest that demographic differences have the potential to actually reduce information coordination problems in groups with deep-level diversity.…”

“…Surface-level differences do not necessarily reduce social integration in highly interdependent groups (Guillaume, Brodbeck, & Riketta, 2012). Visible surface-level differences, because they are perceived by group members, tend to act as signals for the need to coordinate because other group members may have different information, ideas, or goals (Rink & Ellemers, 2006). Cultural (Nederveen Pieterse, van Knippenberg, & van Dierendonck, 2013), racial (Phillips & Loyd, 2006), gender (Rico et al, 2012), and subjective social category (Meyer, Shemla, & Schermuly, 2011) diversity have all been associated with greater informational elaboration in groups.…”

Effects of facial similarity on user responses to embodied agents

“…First, facial resemblance increases the attractiveness of samegender faces more than opposite-gender faces [De Bruine, 2004a]. Second, people have different expectations when they interact with a same-gender partner than with an opposite-gender partner [Rink and Ellemers, 2006]. Third, in oppositegender interactions, men and women behave in a less gender-stereotypical manner than in same-gender interactions (cf.…”

Teaming Up or Down? A Multisource Study on the Role of Team Identification and Learning in the Team Diversity–Performance Link

“…Specifically, people with different backgrounds (e.g., in nationality or gender) have different perspectives and knowledge that can be discussed and integrated during team collaboration (Van Knippenberg et al, 2004). In fact, there is research that demonstrates that when demographic diversity is high, the visibility of differences between team members on the surface-level creates the expectation that team members are likely to be different from each other in their knowledge and opinions (Rink & Ellemers, 2006). The mere expectation of others being different may already set the stage to engage more actively in information sharing and discussion (Loyd, Wang, Phillips, & Lount, 2013).…”

“…On the other hand, there is research suggesting that the mere presence of objective demographic differences is most important because objective differences unconsciously change the group dynamic such that more time and energy is devoted to understanding each other's viewpoints (cf. Rink & Ellemers, 2006). To this end, whether objective, subjective, or both indices of demographic team diversity are important for team learning and performance remains an empirical question.…”