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Demography and Diversity in Organizations: A Review of 40 Years of Research
Abstract
It is now accepted wisdom that a major challenge facing managers in the next century will be an increasingly diverse workforce. But what conclusions can be drawn from the research on demography and diversity about meeting this challenge? Is there, as some researchers suggest, a "value in diversity", or, as suggested by others, does diversity make group functioning more difficult? The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the literature on organizational demography and diversity as it applies to work groups and organizations. We review over 80 studies relevant for understanding the effects of demography as it applies to management and organizations. Based on this review, we summarize what the empirical evidence is for the effects of diversity and suggest areas for further research.
... Organizations are increasingly aware of the benefits of perceived cognitive diversity as it provides to the complementarity of different knowledge bases, perspectives, and opinions needed to solve difficult problems (Uzzi et al., 2013). Prior studies have identified perceived cognitive diversity as one of the most significant factors affecting creativity (Williams & O'Reilly, 1998) because it enables greater information processing capability (Watson et al., 1993) among individuals. More specifically, Shin et al. (2012) found a positive association between perceived cognitive diversity and creativity in conditions of high self-efficacy in Chinese companies, as high levels of perceived cognitive diversity helped workers to identify new ideas from exogenous sources. ...
... Third, whereas diversity theory has relied on the idea that a greater skills range and more resources inherent in diverse units (which are implicitly assumed to stem from minority members who contribute their uniqueness; van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007;Williams & O'Reilly, 1998) can lead to creativity and innovation if unique information is shared and elaborated on (van Knippenberg et al., 2004), we show in our experimental studies that disability leads to idea generation. The effects we theorize and find are inconsistent with these two established assumptions, because chronic back pain or arthritis is not associated with extra skills or resources, and because our individual-level experiments do not include information sharing or elaboration. ...
Disability is typically perceived negatively, and employees with a disability are viewed as a burden that requires accommodation. We draw from creativity theory to challenge this view and propose that disability can make workplace imperfections salient, can function as a situational cue that increases coworkers’ cognitive flexibility, and thus can be a catalyst for creativity. We apply a multi-study, multi-method approach to test these predictions. First, results from time-lagged and objective data in a sample of 7,037 employees from 425 units of a large German car manufacturer show that units with people with disabilities generate more ideas, particularly when employees engage in perspective taking. Second, an experiment with 954 employees shows that having a colleague with a disability has a positive individual-level effect on idea generation. Third, we extend these findings with a full model test in a second experiment of 1,314 employees, which shows that having a colleague with a disability (compared to not having a colleague with a disability) leads to more idea generation and higher idea novelty. Increased cognitive flexibility mediates these effects. Together, our findings contribute to the disability, diversity, and creativity literatures by integrating disability and creativity theory and showing that disability has the potential to serve as a catalyst for creativity and, ultimately, innovation.
We use the dispersion in country‐of‐origin individualism scores among U.S. asset managers as a measure of cultural diversity and find that it is associated with lower future fund return and activeness, and higher equity beta. This dispersion is unrelated to fund risk and net fund flow but positively related to the fund redemption rate. Tests based on alternative measures of cultural traits, controls for gender and racial diversity, instrumental variables and exogenous shocks offer strong support for cultural diversity being a probable cause underlying our findings. However, their statistical significance seems vulnerable to conventional controls for fund and year fixed effects.
In safety- and security critical contexts such as crises management, emergency response and defence, actors must be able to manage complex problems. In this paper we study the organisation of functional competence within teams engaged in dynamic decision-making tasks, such as teams working within a command and control process. More specifically we investigate if team performance is affected by the level of variety of functional competence within teams, in relation to the level of complexity of their task. 18 teams with four members each, participated in experiments with a simulated microworld. Our results show no significant difference in the overall performance between the high variety teams and the low variety teams. However, process measures, such as decision-making speed, and the capability to extinguish fires in the simulated world, still indicate a performance advantage for the low variety teams, at least at a relatively higher level of external complexity.
Contributing to emerging research on corporate governance and operations management, our study examines the connection between board diversity and workplace safety. We propose that boards with a higher representation of female directors prioritize and thus enhance workplace safety due to women's distinct social‐cognitive perspectives on stakeholders, risk avoidance, and regulatory compliance. We also consider two conditions that may strengthen the relationship between female board representation and workplace safety: (1) the power of the female directors on the board, which may cause them to speak out more, and cause others to heed their perspectives; (2) accountability pressures faced by the board, which may increase board member epistemological motivation (the willingness to invest effort to fully understand the board's tasks and decisions being made). Analyzing a unique dataset that covers 1442 firm‐year observations across 266 firms, we show that female board representation improves workplace safety when women have more power and when boards face greater accountability pressures. In an empirical extension, we examine how the representation of racial/ethnic minority directors impacts workplace safety and the synergistic effect of female and minority board representation. Our findings deepen our understanding of how board diversity interacts with situational factors to influence operational outcomes.
Qatar National Vision 2030 underscores the pivotal role of women in national development and promotes initiatives to enhance gender diversity. Given Qatar’s distinctive religious, social, and cultural context, pursuing gender parity invites broader discourse. While gender diversity is recognised nationally for its significance and benefits, its implementation across all sectors remains uncertain. This exploratory study investigates gender diversity within Qatar’s higher education workforce. A review of existing literature and a qualitative, interpretivist approach involving semi-structured interviews with purposively selected participants inform the research. Findings indicate widespread support for gender diversity; however, equitable representation remains elusive. Thematic analysis highlights legal frameworks and institutional policies alongside cultural and societal influences. Despite anti-discrimination laws, persistent barriers include cultural norms, implicit biases, and limited institutional and societal support. The study advocates for increased awareness and collective action, offering a foundation for future research to develop impactful strategies toward gender equity in Qatar’s higher education sector.
Psychosocial factors are well-known determinants of workers' health and well-being, and considerable research exists on how organisations can manage stress at work. Most existing research draws on theories from psychological sciences and applies them using a narrow approach, and consequently, recommendations usually involve organisations minimising demands on employees and maximising organisational resources. Despite these advances, research continues to find differences between the well-being of workers operating under similar working conditions, suggesting a broader understanding of the mechanism through which psychosocial hazards impact well-being is needed. Based on survey data from over 800 employees in Malaysia, we find that deterioration in worker well-being resulting from psychosocial hazards at work is moderated by how safe employees feel to speak up about interpersonal problems at work (known as psychological safety). We conclude that a broader HR approach that looks beyond individual factors in work demands and resources is needed to manage stress at work.
Whereas knowledge heterogeneity has been extensively studied in relation to innovation, the inequality dimension of knowledge diversity has been largely unexplored. We propose that these two dimensions should be considered in conjunction, given that heterogeneity‐based knowledge diversity – member differences in knowledge domain – can invite the elaboration of diverse information and perspectives that can foster team innovativeness, but inequality‐based knowledge diversity – member differences in recognized knowledge level – can disrupt the positive effect of heterogeneity‐based knowledge diversity by stifling the recognition and integration of these diverse perspectives. Our longitudinal analysis of drug patents supported our prediction that inequality‐based knowledge diversity weakened the positive effect of heterogeneity‐based knowledge diversity on knowledge team innovativeness. These findings suggest a fundamental reset in the study of team knowledge diversity: theory and research need to conceptualize team member knowledge differences as based on both heterogeneity and status inequality, and investigate their joint impact on team performance.
Etude meta-analytique des recherches ayant utilise le paradigme experimental de Goldberg (1968), dans le but d'un examen critique des conclusions sur l'evaluation plus favorable, chez les femmes, des auteurs de sexe masculin
This research was conducted to uncover and define disputant cognitive interpretations of conflict. In Study 1, 31 disputants and 9 mediators were asked to describe a conflict with which they were currently associated. Multidimensional scaling techniques were used to inductively derive the dimensions necessary to represent people's cognitive interpretations of conflict (i.e., dimensions of conflict frame). The resulting configuration consisted of three dimensions: (a) relationship versus task, (b) emotional versus intellectual, and (c) compromise versus win. In comparison with disputants, mediator interpretations were more likely to be viewed by disputants in relationship, compromise terms. Study 2 replicated the multidimensional scaling findings of Study 1 using a different subject population (i.e., undergraduate students).
This paper advances the study of organizational demography and turnover by testing propositions derived from Blau's theory of heterogeneity and social structure. In a sample of 398 U.S. community hospitals, voluntary nursing turnover was examined in relation to three demographic dimensions-educational preparation, tenure and employment status-among nurse staff. The form of relationships between turnover and heterogeneity was specified to test whether heterogeneity affects turnover in a linear fashion or, alternatively, in an inverted U-shaped pattern. Our results suggest that effects of heterogeneity on turnover differ by dimension and that such effects can obtain independently of other dimensions. Further, interactions between demographic dimensions show that demographic dimensions also interact with each other to affect nursing turnover. Our findings partially support Blau's conceptualization of heterogeneity in social structure and highlight the importance of multiform heterogeneity in the study of organizational demography and group interaction outcomes.
Formal diversity-training programs have been growing rapidly, but anecdotal literature suggests that many such programs garner negative reactions from participants. Charges of "political correctness" and "white-male bashing" may typify such responses. This article theorizes that fundamental beliefs and multiple sources of influence must be taken into account to predict a participant's reaction. Burrell and Morgan's (1979) work on paradigmatic differences is used to identify polar opposite beliefs about multiculturalism. Ideal states of multiculturalism are then defined and predicted from these fundamental beliefs. These belief systems are compared to sources of influence to predict reaction to a formal diversity-training program. We conclude with some cautionary dialogue about realistic expectations of diversity and the polarizing effects of Balkanizing rhetoric.
