Beyond information exchange: New perspectives on the benefits of racial diversity for group performance
ISBN: 978-1-84855-052-0, eISBN: 978-1-84855-053-7
Publication date: 1 August 2008
Abstract
This chapter examines the processes by which a group's racial composition affects its performance and the social-cognitive tendencies of its individual members. Drawing on published and unpublished experiments regarding group composition and interracial interaction, this review demonstrates that the information exchange perspective on diversity – in which demographic heterogeneity is expected to translate into informational heterogeneity – is more complicated than some have suggested, and is not wholly responsible for the positive performance effects of racial diversity. Indeed, many of the benefits of diversity can be attributed to the impact of heterogeneous settings on White individuals, as well as to motivational and other non-informational processes.
Citation
Sommers, S.R. (2008), "Beyond information exchange: New perspectives on the benefits of racial diversity for group performance", Phillips, K.W. (Ed.) Diversity and Groups (Research on Managing Groups and Teams, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 195-220. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1534-0856(08)11009-X
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited