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WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? DIVERSITY CONSTRUCTS AS SEPARATION, VARIETY, OR DISPARITY IN ORGANIZATIONS
- ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT REVIEW- FORTHCOMING 2007
, 2007
"... Management research on diversity, heterogeneity, dissimilarity, and related concepts of within unit differences in organizations has proliferated in the past decade. However, few clear or consistent findings have emerged. We argue that the nature of these difference-based constructs requires closer ..."
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Cited by 164 (0 self)
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Management research on diversity, heterogeneity, dissimilarity, and related concepts of within unit differences in organizations has proliferated in the past decade. However, few clear or consistent findings have emerged. We argue that the nature of these difference-based constructs requires closer examination. Using diversity as an overarching term, we contend that it has three distinctive types: separation, variety, or disparity. Failure to recognize the unique meaning, maximum shape, and assumptions underlying each type has held back theory development and contributed to mismatched operationalizations and research design. After presenting our diversity typology, we present guidelines for conceptualization, measurement, and theory testing, highlighting the special case of demographic diversity.
Engineering Design Thinking, Teaching, and Learning
- JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION
, 2005
"... This paper is based on the premises that the purpose of engineering education is to graduate engineers who can design, and that design thinking is complex. The paper begins by briefly reviewing the history and role of design in the engineering curriculum. Several dimensions of design thinking are th ..."
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Cited by 158 (6 self)
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This paper is based on the premises that the purpose of engineering education is to graduate engineers who can design, and that design thinking is complex. The paper begins by briefly reviewing the history and role of design in the engineering curriculum. Several dimensions of design thinking are then detailed, explaining why design is hard to learn and harder still to teach, and outlining the research available on how well design thinking skills are learned. The currently most-favored pedagogical model for teaching design, project-based learning (PBL), is explored next, along with available assessment data on its success. Two contexts for PBL are emphasized: first-year cornerstone courses and globally dispersed PBL courses. Finally, the paper lists some of the open research questions that must be answered to identify the best pedagogical practices of improving design learning, after which it closes by making recommendations for research aimed at enhancing design learning.
Work groups and teams in organizations
- In W.C. Borman & D. R. Ilgen & R. Klimoski (Eds.) Industrial/Organizational Psychology
, 2003
"... This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the ILR Collection at DigitalCommons@ILR. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles ..."
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Cited by 138 (6 self)
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This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the ILR Collection at DigitalCommons@ILR. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles
Enhancing the effectiveness of work groups and teams
- Psychological Science Suppl. S
, 2006
"... SUMMARY—Teams of people working together for a common purpose have been a centerpiece of human social organization ever since our ancient ancestors first banded together to hunt game, raise families, and defend their communities. Human history is largely a story of people working together in groups ..."
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Cited by 124 (3 self)
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SUMMARY—Teams of people working together for a common purpose have been a centerpiece of human social organization ever since our ancient ancestors first banded together to hunt game, raise families, and defend their communities. Human history is largely a story of people working together in groups to explore, achieve, and conquer. Yet, the modern concept of work in large organizations that developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is largely a tale of work as a collection of individual jobs. A variety of global forces unfolding over the last two decades, however, has pushed organizations worldwide to restructure work around teams, to enable more rapid, flexible, and adaptive responses to the unexpected. This shift in the structure of work has made team effectiveness a salient organizational concern. Teams touch our lives everyday and their effectiveness is important to well-being across a wide range of societal functions. There is over 50 years of psychological research—literally thousands of studies—focused on understanding and influencing the processes that underlie team effectiveness. Our goal in this monograph is to sift through this voluminous literature to identify what we know, what we think we know, and what we need to know to improve the effectiveness of work groups and teams. We begin by defining team effectiveness and establishing the conceptual underpinnings of our approach to understanding it. We then turn to our review, which concentrates primarily on topics that have well-developed theoretical and empirical foundations, to ensure that our conclusions and recommendations are on firm footing. Our review begins by focusing on cognitive, motivational/affective, and behavioral team processes—processes that enable team members to combine their resources to resolve task demands and, in so doing, be effective. We then turn our attention to identifying interventions, or ‘‘levers,’ ’ that can shape or align team processes and thereby provide tools
Team effectiveness 1997–2007: A review of recent advancements and a glimpse into the future
- Journal of Management
, 2008
"... The online version of this article can be found at: ..."
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Cited by 113 (7 self)
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The online version of this article can be found at:
Work group diversity and group performance: An integrative model and research agenda.
- Journal of Applied Psychology,
, 2004
"... Research on the relationship between work group diversity and performance has yielded inconsistent results. To address this problem, the authors propose the categorization-elaboration model (CEM), which reconceptualizes and integrates information/decision making and social categorization perspectiv ..."
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Cited by 111 (8 self)
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Research on the relationship between work group diversity and performance has yielded inconsistent results. To address this problem, the authors propose the categorization-elaboration model (CEM), which reconceptualizes and integrates information/decision making and social categorization perspectives on work-group diversity and performance. The CEM incorporates mediator and moderator variables that typically have been ignored in diversity research and incorporates the view that information/decision making and social categorization processes interact such that intergroup biases flowing from social categorization disrupt the elaboration (in-depth processing) of task-relevant information and perspectives. In addition, the authors propose that attempts to link the positive and negative effects of diversity to specific types of diversity should be abandoned in favor of the assumption that all dimensions of diversity may have positive as well as negative effects. The ways in which these propositions may set the agenda for future research in diversity are discussed.
General mental ability in the world of work: Occupational attainment and job performance
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 2004
"... The psychological construct of general mental ability (GMA), introduced by C. Spearman (1904) nearly 100 years ago, has enjoyed a resurgence of interest and attention in recent decades. This article presents the research evidence that GMA predicts both occupational level attained and performance wit ..."
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Cited by 98 (0 self)
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The psychological construct of general mental ability (GMA), introduced by C. Spearman (1904) nearly 100 years ago, has enjoyed a resurgence of interest and attention in recent decades. This article presents the research evidence that GMA predicts both occupational level attained and performance within one’s chosen occupation and does so better than any other ability, trait, or disposition and better than job experience. The sizes of these relationships with GMA are also larger than most found in psychological research. Evidence is presented that weighted combinations of specific aptitudes tailored to individual jobs do not predict job performance better than GMA alone, disconfirming specific aptitude theory. A theory of job performance is described that explicates the central role of GMA in the world of work. These findings support Spearman’s proposition that GMA is of critical importance in human affairs. During the 1960s when we were graduate students, we frequently heard predictions from experimental psychologists and experimental social psychologists that in 20 or so years differential psychology would be a dead field, because experimental research would explain all individual differences as effects of past or present (environmental) treatment conditions. Obviously, this has
The impact of cross-training on team effectiveness
- J Appl Psychol
"... The authors examined the role of cross-training in developing shared team-interaction mental models, coordination, and performance in a 2-experiment study using computer simulation methodology (for Experiment 1, N � 45 teams; for Experiment 2, N � 49 teams). Similar findings emerged across the 2 exp ..."
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Cited by 71 (2 self)
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The authors examined the role of cross-training in developing shared team-interaction mental models, coordination, and performance in a 2-experiment study using computer simulation methodology (for Experiment 1, N � 45 teams; for Experiment 2, N � 49 teams). Similar findings emerged across the 2 experiments. First, cross-training enhanced the development of shared team-interaction models. Second, coordination mediated the relationship between shared mental models and team performance. However, there was some inconsistency in the findings concerning the depth of cross-training necessary for improving shared mental models. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of different levels of cross-training on team effectiveness. Despite widespread use in organizations, teams have not always lived up to expectations. There are many reasons for teams not performing to their potential, such as poor member composition
Cooperation, competition, and team performance: Toward a contingency approach
- Academy of Management Journal
, 2003
"... This study examined whether the relationship between reward structure and team performance is contingent upon task dimension, team composition, and individual performance level. Seventy-five four-person teams engaged in a simulated interactive task in which reward structure was manipulated. A compet ..."
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Cited by 59 (18 self)
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This study examined whether the relationship between reward structure and team performance is contingent upon task dimension, team composition, and individual performance level. Seventy-five four-person teams engaged in a simulated interactive task in which reward structure was manipulated. A competitive structure enhanced one task dimension, speed, whereas a cooperative structure enhanced accuracy. Teams with extroverted and agreeable members performed better under the coopera-tive structure, whereas teams low on these orientations performed better under the competitive structure. Finally, reward structure had more impact on team members with low performance. The degree to which organizations should em-phasize cooperation or competition among the members of work teams is an age-old controversy. Competitive systems embody equity norms and emphasize performance differences among team members, typically rewarding individuals with
Factional groups: A new vantage on demographic faultlines, conflict, and disintegration in work teams. Academy of Management Journal
, 2005
"... We develop the concept of factional groups, or those in which members are representatives from a small number of (often just two) social entities. Such groups include many merger integration teams, bilateral task forces, and joint venture teams. We extend theory about group demography by arguing tha ..."
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Cited by 52 (2 self)
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We develop the concept of factional groups, or those in which members are representatives from a small number of (often just two) social entities. Such groups include many merger integration teams, bilateral task forces, and joint venture teams. We extend theory about group demography by arguing that factional groups possess preexisting faultlines that require a new conception of demographic dissimilarity. We propose that large demographic faultlines between factions engender task conflict, emotional conflict, and behavioral disintegration—which in turn lead to poor performance. We tested our model using data from 71 joint venture management groups. Data gathered in two waves strongly supported our propositions. We received helpful comments on earlier versions of
