The impact of relational demography on teamwork: When differences make a difference

Diversity and teamwork are two themes that characterize the writing about the future of organizations. We explore the effects of age, tenure, sex, and race/ethnicity on teamwork. Results show that the more different an individual is from the group, the less teamwork. Further, there are important differences in sex and race/ethnicity in this pattern that are not predicted by similarity/attraction or social categorization theory. For example whites, but not minorities, report more teamwork when in more ethnically diverse groups. Overall, the results suggest that the often-reported negative effects of diversity on teamwork depends importantly on the composition of the group. Being a "minority" may be as much a function of the context as one's demographic characteristics