When Team Diversity Facilitates Performance: Understanding and Overcoming Fractured Behavioral Patterns

当团队多样性促进绩效时：理解和克服支离破碎的行为模式

• 批准号: 1461584
• 负责人: Eden King
• 金额: $ 47.98万
• 依托单位: George Mason University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-02-15 至 2018-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1461584&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: When; Team; Diversity; Facilitates; Performance

Diversity within American society - and the teams that work within it - is a reality. The question, then, is how to leverage team diversity toward team goals. Common wisdom behind the "business case for diversity" purports that diversity is a resource that enhances team success. Social science findings, however, suggest that diversity can instead yield stifled and conflictual team process that undermines team outcomes. These detrimental effects are pronounced when diverse attributes align in meaningful ways; like cracks in the surface of the earth, subgroup divisions - faultlines - can emerge that restrain performance. The emergent problem is how to prevent and overcome the fractured behavioral dynamics of faultlines to allow team diversity to be effectively leveraged toward effective performance.The goal of this set of studies is to explore the conditions under which diversity facilitates rather than hinders team performance. It is anticipated that the promise of diversity can be achieved (and pitfalls avoided) in conditions under which dysfunctional, fractured behavioral patterns are prevented. Drawing from theories that explain the challenges and opportunities of team diversity, the current studies explore three conditions that may enable the benefits of diversity: high levels of team identification, pro-diversity values, and social connectedness. Overall, this work will shape scholarly discourse and organizational practice regarding when and how members' diverse characteristics can facilitate team performance.Intellectual Merit: This work will meaningfully contribute to organizational science by identifying factors that inhibit and facilitate quality performance in diverse teams. It will shift the simplistic lens of diversity as a unidimensional feature of teams toward an approach that emphasizes the complex behavioral patterns that can emerge when team members' characteristics coincide. To do this, the current studies will examine diversity from a more multidimensional viewpoint: team faultlines. In addition, the studies will use the newly available technology of sociometric sensors to examine how diversity faultlines manifest themselves in subtle ways in the social interactions of team members. This will allow the current researchers to: (1) address equivocal findings about the effects of team diversity, (2) challenge the dominant assumption that faultlines necessarily exist when demographic categories align, (3) explore the complex behavioral manifestations generated by faultlines, and finally (4) examine conditions under which the effects of faultlines can be attenuated. These advancements will shape scholarly understanding about the ways in which team diversity can positively and negatively impact performance. Broader Impacts: This research will have broad-reaching impact on both science and society. Indeed, the theoretical bases and empirical findings of this research will provide a unique explanation for previous equivocal conclusions about team diversity. Moreover, this research will transform the way scholars approach team diversity by focusing on the particular patterns of behavior that constrain performance. Indeed, the unique methodological approach, which brings the power of "bigger data" from sociometric sensors to the study of team dynamics, will spur new insights and research paradigms. The broader impacts further extend to individuals, organizations, and society. Individuals may gain new insights into interpersonal dynamics and the subtle behavioral patterns that reinforce intergroup biases. This work will also identify (and empirically assess in experimental and field contexts) moderating conditions that organizations can shape to maximize the potential of workforce diversity. Ultimately, the simultaneous proliferation of team-based organizational systems and demographic diversity yields the potential for exceptional team outcomes. The findings of this work are thus timely and instructive for enhancing team effectiveness and resolving faultlines in the many contexts where diverse teams work toward shared goals.

美国社会以及在其中工作的团队的多样性是一个现实。那么，问题是如何利用团队多样性来实现团队目标。 “多元化商业案例”背后的常识表明，多元化是增强团队成功的资源。然而，社会科学研究结果表明，多样性反而会导致团队流程受到抑制和冲突，从而破坏团队成果。当不同的属性以有意义的方式结合起来时，这些有害影响就会很明显。就像地球表面的裂缝一样，子组划分（断层线）可能会出现，从而限制绩效。迫在眉睫的问题是如何预防和克服断层线断裂的行为动力学，从而有效地利用团队多样性来实现有效的绩效。这组研究的目标是探索多样性促进而不是阻碍团队绩效的条件。预计在防止功能失调、破碎的行为模式的情况下，可以实现多样性的承诺（并避免陷阱）。目前的研究借鉴解释团队多样性的挑战和机遇的理论，探讨了可能带来多样性好处的三个条件：高水平的团队认同、支持多样性的价值观和社会联系。总体而言，这项工作将塑造关于成员的多样化特征何时以及如何促进团队绩效的学术讨论和组织实践。智力价值：这项工作将通过识别抑制和促进多样化团队中高质量绩效的因素，对组织科学做出有意义的贡献。它将把多样性作为团队的一维特征的简单化视角转变为强调当团队成员的特征一致时可能出现的复杂行为模式的方法。为此，当前的研究将从一个更加多维的角度来审视多样性：团队断层线。此外，这些研究将使用最新的社会测量传感器技术来研究多样性断层线如何在团队成员的社交互动中以微妙的方式表现出来。这将使当前的研究人员能够：（1）解决关于团队多样性影响的模棱两可的发现，（2）挑战人口类别一致时断层线必然存在的主导假设，（3）探索断层线产生的复杂行为表现，最后（4）检查断层线影响可以减弱的条件。这些进步将形成对团队多样性如何对绩效产生积极和消极影响的学术理解。更广泛的影响：这项研究将对科学和社会产生广泛的影响。事实上，这项研究的理论基础和实证结果将为之前关于团队多样性的模棱两可的结论提供独特的解释。此外，这项研究将通过关注限制绩效的特定行为模式来改变学者们处理团队多样性的方式。事实上，独特的方法论将社会测量传感器的“大数据”的力量引入团队动态研究，将激发新的见解和研究范式。更广泛的影响进一步延伸到个人、组织和社会。个人可能会对人际动态和强化群体间偏见的微妙行为模式获得新的见解。这项工作还将确定（并在实验和现场环境中进行实证评估）组织可以塑造的调节条件，以最大限度地发挥劳动力多样性的潜力。最终，基于团队的组织系统和人口多样性的同时扩散产生了卓越团队成果的潜力。因此，这项工作的结果对于提高团队效率和解决不同团队为实现共同目标而努力的许多情况下的断层问题是及时且具有指导意义的。