Preface

Abstract

The very first issue of the Research on Managing Groups and Teams volume in 1998 was on the topic of Group Composition. As an inaugural topic that choice reflected the importance of the issue of composition in the study of groups and in the changing American and global landscape. Now, 10 years later, the topic of the volume, Diversity and Groups, has emerged again at an opportune time in the research, managerial, and societal dialogue on this issue. One of my very first publications was a chapter in that inaugural issue of Research on Managing Groups and Teams with Charles O’Reilly and Sigal Barsade titled “Group Demography and Innovation: Does Diversity Help?” So as you can see, this topic is one that has been central to my own research agenda since its inception. When Maggie and Beta asked me to be the volume editor for this issue on Diversity and Groups I was excited to have the opportunity to bring together an interdisciplinary set of scholars thinking about the questions of when, why, how, and for what theoretical reasons does diversity affect individual and group functioning.

Citation

Phillips, K.W. (2008), "Preface", Phillips, K.W. (Ed.) Diversity and Groups (Research on Managing Groups and Teams, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. ix-xi. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1534-0856(08)11014-3