A Dynamic Perspective on Diverse Teams: Moving From The Dual Process Model to A Dynamic Coordination-Based Model of Diverse Team Performance - Kannan Srikanth, Sarah Harvey & Randall Peterson

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A <strong>Dynamic</strong> <strong>Perspective</strong> on Diverse Teams † 21 Downloaded by [London Business School Library], [Randall Peterson] at 06:11 31 January 2016 groups with informational diversity, but not demographic diversity, interpersonal problems can develop when this deep-level diversity is not recognized. People expect others who are similar to themselves in terms of salient surface-level characteristics to share their perspectives and opinions, and they react negatively when this is not the case (Phillips, 2003; Phillips & Loyd, 2006; Rink & Ellemers, 2007b). Sub-groups can form over time as a result of conflict, which reduces the perception of similarity between team members (Zellmer-Bruhn, Maloney, Bhappu, & Salvador, 2008). In contrast, surface-level differences can be a signal that deep-level differences between team members exist, creating an expectation that there will be differences of information or opinion (Phillips et al., 2004) and a sense of congruence about norms and interpersonal relations in the team (Phillips, 2003; Rink & Ellemers, 2007a). Surface-level diversity can allow individuals to focus less on their interpersonal relationships and more on the task at hand (Loyd et al., 2013). It can also act as a signal to underlying differences, creating an expectation that group members will disagree and lessening the impact of that disagreement when it occurs (Rink & Ellemers, 2007b). This can lead group members who have a strong racial identity, for example, to exhibit more active communication behavior during initial interactions with diverse groups in order to avoid potential misunderstandings (Stewart & Garcia-Prieto, 2008). In sum, in the short term, demographic differences can help teams to coordinate diverse information by triggering the need for group members to anticipate informational differences. This does not deny the existence and importance of social categorization processes, which have been long established in the social psychology literature (Bodenhausen, Kang, & Peery, 2012). Rather, we suggest that the cognitive process of categorizing group members need not automatically lead to ineffective group processes such as poor communication and less trust with members of different categories. Instead, those differences may lead to attempts to adjust communication to help overcome representational gaps. This seems particularly likely as the workforce becomes increasingly diverse and attitudes toward demographically different others has and continues to improve over time (e.g. Bobo, Charles, Krysan, & Simmons, 2012). However, that more positive process is still unlikely to occur in every case, such as when social category differences create clearly divisible sub-groups (Lau & Murnighan, 1998); or when social category differences are so low in salience that they do not fulfil a signaling function (Stewart & Garcia-Preito, 2008); or when group members choose to ignore social category differences (Rattan & Ambady, 2013). Summary of the <strong>Dynamic</strong> <strong>Perspective</strong> on Team Diversity Research Our review of studies of diversity’s effects over the long term versus the short term through the emerging, more dynamic lens to studying teams reveals three
22 † The Academy of Management Annals Downloaded by [London Business School Library], [Randall Peterson] at 06:11 31 January 2016 key insights that are contrary to the dual-process model. First, although teams are inclined to use diverse information in the short term, they are less effective at integrating these resources, and therefore are more likely to encounter coordination failures and associated performance losses. Second, interpersonal problems tend to emerge in the medium-long term as diverse teams interact. In fact, social categorization and identity processes do not necessarily lead to immediate negative interpersonal processes in diverse groups (i.e. recall that our review assumes zero-levels of negative initial perception about out-group members). Third, surface-level differences can actually have the counterintuitive effect of aiding group process and integrating informational resources in the short term because the visual perception of differences between group members creates an expectation that deep-level differences are present, which triggers attempts to coordinate. The combined evidence from the short-term and long-term studies strongly suggests the presence of intervening short-term variables that are inconsistent with the dual-process model, despite long-term effects being largely consistent with the dual-process model. In the following section, we explore the implications of those three insights and propose some new research directions for understanding diverse teams based on our dynamic perspective. Toward a More <strong>Dynamic</strong> <strong>Perspective</strong> on Performance in Diverse Teams The insights from reviewing the literature through a dynamic perspective suggest an emerging alternative to the dual-process model. Specifically, in the very early stages of group interaction, surface-level demographic differences can trigger better information sharing in groups, whereas deep informational differences are not seen and thus do not trigger the need to coordinate and thus are likely to be associated with ineffective processes. It suggests the possibility that the negative interpersonal effects of diversity that have been found in studies over longer periods actually develop over time and perhaps only after a group experiences some task-related hurdle such as coordination difficulties, rather than in immediate response to social categorization. Whereas the predicted long-term effects of diversity we have reviewed in the literature mirror those found when measures of group processes and performance are taken after several weeks, or months of interaction, the short-term effects do not. This leaves open the question of why negative interpersonal processes emerge over time in diverse groups, when they are oftentimes not present in the short term—suggesting the need for a new explanation of both the short- and long-term effects of diversity in groups. In an attempt to answer that question, we draw on research on coordination in groups. Field studies of diverse groups that are composed of different specialists suggest that groups in general suffer from “coordination neglect” (Heath & Staudenmayer, 2000; Wageman, 1995), and that group members
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A Dynamic Perspective on Diverse Teams: Moving From The Dual Process Model to A Dynamic Coordination-Based Model of Diverse Team Performance - Kannan Srikanth, Sarah Harvey & Randall Peterson

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