The impact of ethnic-cultural diversity in groups on individual performance: a field experiment in higher education

Societies and public organizations have become increasingly diverse with regard to the ethnic-cultural background of their members. As a result the attention for the effects of ethnic-cultural diversity on organizational... [ view full abstract ]

Societies and public organizations have become increasingly diverse with regard to the ethnic-cultural background of their members. As a result the attention for the effects of ethnic-cultural diversity on organizational performance has increased. Yet, research dealing with the link between diversity and performance show contradictory results (Joshi & Roh, 2007; Kirkman, Tesluk & Rosen; Stahl et al., 2009). These contradictory results are connected to two different arguments about the relation between ethnic-cultural diversity and performance. First, there is the information elaboration perspective voicing the argument that diversity will impact positively on performance. The argument is based on the idea that diversity will lead to the presence of different forms of relevant knowledge, skills, and perceptions (Kooij-de Bode e.a., 2008). This is said to contribute positively to performance. The second, social categorization perspective voices the idea that people categorize others based on their level of identification (Tjafel, 1982). Research shows that people have more confidence in others with whom they identify resulting in increased performance (Williams & O’Reilly, 1998). Therefore, this perspective provides an explanation for the potential negative influence of diversity on performance. However, the categorization-elaboration model combines these two perspectives in a model explaining both the positive and negative impact of diversity on performance. Thereby, this model provides a new perspective on the impact of ethnic cultural diversity (Van Knippenberg et al., 2006).
In this research, we use a field experiment to assess the applicability of these different perspectives and the different causal relations that are said to underly the effects of ethnic-cultural diversity on group performance. We manipulated 9 student work groups in a bachelor social sciences program with in total 181 respondents. In these groups 27 different ethnic-cultural backgrounds were represented. Students were asked to make an assignment, than discuss the assignment as a group, and then make the assignment again. Finally, students were asked to fill out a questionnaire. The results from this study should provide insight into the impact of ethnic cultural diversity on performance.