Umgang mit Diversität sozialer Gruppierungen : eine Betrachtung von Diversität in Organisationen aus Perspektive des Ansatzes der Sozialen Identität

The construct diversity describes the collective amount of differences among members within a social unit. The present dissertation is based on the assumption that, through engagement with diversity, people acquire an understanding of what role diversity plays in the societies, organizations, work groups, or other social units they are part of. This understanding of the role diversity plays in a given social unit provides a vantage point from which people will engage with diversity in the future. These vantage points from which people engage with diversity are the general subject matter of the present dissertation. Two main research questions are addressed in this regard: First, whether the role diversity is given in a particular context does have effects on groups and the individual members therein. Second, if such effects exist, it seeks to explore the processes and mechanisms they are based on. Both questions are addressed from different perspectives in the three main chapters of this dissertation. Chapter 5 contains two meta-analyses on the effects of diversity beliefs and diversity climates. Diversity beliefs are individual attitudes that describe the degree to which diversity is ascribed an instrumental value for achieving beneficial outcomes or avoiding detrimental ones. Diversity climates depict such a value of diversity on the group-level. Building on the social identity approach, I explain how diversity beliefs and climates can obviate diversity’s detrimental effects and foster beneficial ones. As both diversity beliefs and climates can cause such effects, they are considered together in the main analyses in the chapter. In the first part of the chapter, a meta-analysis on these moderator effects of diversity beliefs/climates is presented (k = 23). The majority of studies that addressed such effects reported significant results. The patterns of these results showed that, in general, diversity will be more positively related to beneficial outcomes the more it is valued. However, the analysis also revealed that there are at least two types of patterns of this moderation. So far, it cannot be explained which pattern will occur under what circumstances. In the second part of the chapter, a meta-analysis on the main effects of diversity beliefs/climates on beneficial outcomes is presented (k = 71). These effects did not receive much attention in the primary studies. Based on the social identity approach and the fact that diversity is a ubiquitous feature of modern organizations, I argue that they are important nonetheless. The meta-analysis revealed a significant positive main effect of diversity beliefs on beneficial outcomes (r = .25; p < .0001). However, the effect sizes varied considerably across studies. Both moderator and main effects were found across a broad array of outcomes, study designs, levels of analysis, and operationalizations of the constructs involved. They were found irrespective of whether diversity beliefs or diversity climates were considered. The heterogeneity of results in the meta-analyses suggests that there is still much to be learned about when differences in vantage points from which people engage with diversity will have an effect and about the processes that underlie these effects. Chapter 6 is, therefore, predominantly concerned with these underlying processes. Most of the previous research has treated pro-diversity beliefs and pro-similarity beliefs as opposite poles of one underlying continuum. There is, however, evidence that people can hold both types of beliefs simultaneously. Therefore, I propose that both diversity in certain aspects and similarity in other aspects can simultaneously constitute valid and valued parts of an organization’s identity, and that, hence, identifying with the organization can create two forms of solidarity among the employees: organic solidarity – based on meaningfully and synergistically interrelated differences, and mechanic solidarity – based on the common ground that all employees share. Furthermore, I propose that both forms of solidarity can coexist and that both are positively related to the quality of collaboration within the organization. Thus, organizational identification is proposed to influence quality of collaboration indirectly through both organic and mechanic solidarity. These propositions were tested with regard to the collaboration of different teams within two organizations: a German university (Study 1, N = 699) and a Taiwanese hospital (Study 2, N = 591). The results from both studies confirm the predictions. However, the relative importance of each form of solidarity varied across study contexts and across different facets of the quality of collaboration. Chapter 7 also builds on the findings from the meta-analyses and is again predominantly focussed on the processes underlying the effects of diversity beliefs and diversity climates, yet from a different angle. Previously, diversity beliefs and climates have often been discussed with regard to their potential to influence whether diversity will lead to more and deeper elaboration of information within the group. In chapter 7 a theoretical model is developed that complements these cognitive processes by addressing the emotional side of diverse groups. Central to the model is the assumption that group diversity can stimulate group members to engage with each other emotionally, resulting in higher levels of state affective empathy: an emotional state which arises from the comprehension and apprehension of fellow group members’ emotional state. State affective empathy, in turn, is known to lead to a variety of beneficial team processes that can ultimately enhance individual and group-level performance. Thus, the central proposition of the model is that the relationship between diversity and performance is mediated through state affective empathy. The other propositions in the model specify moderators that determine when diversity will indeed have this empathy-stimulating effect. Diversity beliefs and climates are considered second-order moderators that shape the relationship between diversity and empathy through their influence on the first-order moderators. In general, it is proposed that diversity is related to empathy more positively if it is valued by the group or its members. In summary, the results from the meta-analyses in chapter 5, the results from the field studies in chapter 6, and the theoretical arguments presented in chapter 7 can be interpreted such that differences in vantage points from which people engage with diversity can indeed affect groups and their members. Therefore, the first research question of the present dissertation can be answered affirmatively from three different perspectives. However, it also became clear that there is still much uncertainty about the mechanisms underlying these effects. In line with the second research question of the present dissertation, these mechanisms were examined more closely in chapter 6 and 7. The field studies in chapter 6 highlighted the role of identification as the driving force behind the effects of different vantage points on diversity. Furthermore, they also corroborate the proposition that valuing diversity and valuing similarity can be co-occurring phenomena that both influence the collaboration within the group positively. The theoretical model presented in chapter 7 opens up a new emotional way in which diversity beliefs and climates can influence whether diversity will lead to better or worse performance. In sum, therefore, also with regard to the second research question of the present dissertation, progress has been made.Diversität bezeichnet das Ausmaß an Unterschieden zwischen den Mitgliedern einer sozialen Gruppierung. Der zentrale Gegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Art und Weise, in der sich Menschen auf die Diversität der Gruppen, zu denen sie gehören, einlassen. Im Hinblick darauf möchte ich mit dieser Dissertation zur Beantwortung zweier Fragen beitragen: Erstens, ob die Art und Weise in der Menschen Diversität begegnen einen Einfluss auf einzelne Gruppenmitglieder und Gruppen als Ganzes hat. Zweitens, sollte dies der Fall sein, welche Mechanismen diesen Effekten zugrunde liegen. Diese Fragen werden in den drei Hauptkapiteln der Arbeit von verschiedenen Blickwinkeln aus beantwortet. In Kapitel 5 wird der Forschungsstand zu den Effekten von Diversity Beliefs und Diversity Climates meta-analytisch zusammengefasst. Diversity Beliefs sind individuelle Einstellungen, die beschreiben wie sehr die Diversität einer Gruppe als wertvolle Ressource für das Erreichen der Ziele der Gruppe und der Ziele der einzelnen Mitglieder wertgeschätzt wird. Diversity Climates beschreiben diese Wertschätzung von Diversität auf Gruppenebene. Der erste Teil des Kapitels beinhaltet eine Meta-Analyse zu den Moderationseffekten von Diversity Beliefs/Climates (k = 23). Die überwiegende Mehrzahl aller Studien, die derartige Effekte berichten, finden signifikante Interaktionseffekte im Sinne der Hypothese, dass Diversität dann zu vorteilhafteren Ergebnissen führt, wenn sie von entweder einzelnen Personen oder ganzen Gruppen wertgeschätzt wird. Die Ergebnisse sind jedoch heterogen in Bezug auf die unterschiedlichen Muster dieser Moderationen. Der zweite Teil des Kapitels beinhaltet eine Meta-Analyse zu den Haupteffekten von Diversity Beliefs/Climates (k = 71). Über alle Studien hinweg zeigt sich ein mittelgroßer, positiver Zusammenhang zwischen der Wertschätzung von Diversität und vorteilhaften Ergebnissen für Individuen und Gruppen (r = .25; p < .0001). Die Effektstärken variieren jedoch beträchtlich zwischen den Studien. Sowohl die statistische Signifikanz der Moderationseffekte und deren Muster, wie auch die Stärke der Haupteffekte waren weitestgehend unabhängig von der Art der Ergebnisvariablen, den Studiendesigns, den Analyseebenen und den Operationalisierungen der beteiligten Konstrukte. Beide Formen von Effekten fanden sich in gleicher Ausprägung sowohl für Diversity Beliefs wie auch für Diversity Climates. Die Meta-Analysen zeigen, dass die Art und Weise wie Menschen sich auf Diversität einlassen in der Tat Effekte auf Gruppen und ihre Mitglieder haben kann. Allerdings deutet die Heterogenität der Befunde darauf hin, dass noch wenig darüber bekannt ist, durch welche Prozesse diese Effekte verursacht, beziehungsweise vermittelt, werden. Kapitel 6 befasst sich daher genauer mit diesen verursachenden und vermittelnden Prozessen. Es wurde postuliert, dass sowohl die Wertschätzung von Diversität wie auch von Similarität gemeinsam Bestandteile einer organisationalen Identität sein können, und dass die Identifikation mit solch einer Identität demnach zu zwei Formen von Solidarität führen kann: zu organischer Solidarität, die auf sich ergänzenden Unterschieden zwischen den Mitgliedern der Organisation aufbaut, und zu mechanischer Solidarität, die auf Gemeinsamkeiten der Mitglieder beruht. Ferner wurde postuliert, dass beide Formen von Solidarität die Kooperation in einer Organisation positiv beeinflussen. Diese Annahmen wurden in Hinblick auf die Kooperation zwischen Teams innerhalb einer deutschen Universität (Studie 1, N = 699) und innerhalb einer Universitätsklinik in Taiwan (Studie 2, N = 591) geprüft. Ingesamt sprechen die Befunde für die postulierten Zusammenhänge. Es zeigte sich allerdings auch, dass beide Formen der Solidarität in unterschiedlichen Kontexten und in Bezug auf unterschiedliche Maße für die Qualität der Kooperation einen unterschiedlich starken Einfluss haben können. Ebenfalls aufbauend auf der Heterogenität der Ergebnisse aus den Meta-Analysen, befasst sich auch Kapitel 7 mit den Prozessen, die den Effekten von Diversity Beliefs und Climates zugrunde liegen. Bislang wurden diese zumeist in Hinblick auf die Vorteile der Diversität für tiefere und reichere Informationsverarbeitung in Gruppen untersucht. In Kapitel 7 wird ein theoretisches Modell dargestellt, das zusätzlich zu diesen kognitiven Prozessen auf die emotionalen Prozesse in heterogenen Gruppen eingeht. Das zentrale Postulat des Modells besagt, dass Diversität die Gruppenmitglieder zu vermehrter Empathie für andere Gruppenmitglieder anregen kann und dass diese wiederum zu vorteilhaften Team-Prozessen führt, die letztlich die Leistung einzelner und der Gruppe verbessern. Weitere Postulate beziehen sich auf moderierende Faktoren, die bestimmen ob Diversität tatsächlich zu mehr Empathie führt. Diversity Beliefs und Climates nehmen hierbei die Rolle von Moderatoren zweiter Ordnung ein. Sie wirken vermittelt über andere Moderatoren, dergestalt dass die Beziehung zwischen Diversität und Empathie positiver wird, je mehr Diversität wertgeschätzt wird. Zusammenfassend in Hinblick auf die erste Forschungsfragestellung, legen die Ergebnisse aus den Meta-Analysen (Kapitel 5) und den beiden Feldstudien (Kapitel 6), sowie das theoretische Modell (Kapitel 7) nahe, dass die Art und Weise wie sich Menschen auf Diversität einlassen entscheidende Effekte für Gruppen und ihre Mitglieder haben kann. In Bezug auf die Prozesse, die diesen Effekten zugrunde liegen – und damit der zweiten Fragestellung – konnten ebenfalls Erkenntnisse gewonnen werden

Unlocking the performance potential of functionally diverse teams: The paradoxical role of leader mood

In a multisource, lagged design field study of 66 consulting teams, we investigated the role of leader mood in unlocking the performance potential of functionally diverse teams. In line with our hypotheses, we found that, given high levels of leader positive mood, functional diversity was positively related to collective team identification. In contrast, given high levels of l

Diversity patterns and community structure of the ground-associated macrofauna along the beach-inland transition zone of small tropical islands

Biodiversity follows distinct and observable patterns. Where two systems meet, biodiversity is often increased, due to overlapping occurrence ranges and the presence of specialized species that can tolerate the dynamic conditions of the transition zone. One of the most pronounced transition zones occurs at shores, where oceans and terrestrial habitat collide, forming the shore–inland transition zone. The relevance of this transition zone in shaping a system’s community structure is particularly pronounced on small islands due to their high shore-to-inland-area ratio. However, the community structure of insular faunas along this transition zone is unknown. Here, we investigated the diversity patterns along the beach–inland transition zone of small islands and tested the hypothesis that species diversity increases toward the transition zone where beach and interior habitat meet. By measuring environmental parameters, resource availability, and ground-associated macrofauna diversity along transects running across the beach–inland transition zone, we show that a gradual change in species composition from beach to the inland exists, but neither taxa richness, diversity, nor overall abundance changed significantly. These findings offer important insights into insular community structure at the transition zone from sea to land that are relevant to better understand the dynamic and unique characteristics of insular ecosystems

Fostering Flexibility in the New World of Work: A Model of Time-Spatial Job Crafting

In today’s “new world of work,” knowledge workers are often given considerable flexibility regarding where and when to work (i.e., time-spatial flexibility) and this has become a popular approach to redesigning work. Whilst the adoption of such practices is mainly considered a top-down approach to work design, we argue that successful utilization of time-spatial flexibility requires proactivity on the part of the employee in the form of time-spatial job crafting. Previous research has demonstrated that time-spatial flexibility can have both positive and negative effects on well-being, performance, and work-life balance; yet remains mute about the underlying reasons for this and how employees can handle the given flexibility. Drawing on research from work design, we posit that in order for employees to stay well and productive in this context, they need to engage in time-spatial job crafting (i.e., a context-specific form of job crafting that entails reflection on time and place), which can be considered a future work skill. We propose a theoretical model of time-spatial job crafting in which we discuss its components, shed light on its antecedents, and explain how time-spatial job crafting is related to positive work outcomes through a time/spatial-demands fit

Organic matter cycling along geochemical, geomorphic and disturbance gradients in forests and cropland of the African Tropics – Project TropSOC Database Version 1.0

The African Tropics are hotspots of modern-day land-use change and are, at the same time, of great relevance for the cycling of carbon (C) and nutrients between plants, soils and the atmosphere. However, the consequences of land conversion on biogeochemical cycles are still largely unknown as they are not studied in a landscape context that defines the geomorphic, geochemically and pedological framework in which biological processes take place. Thus, the response of tropical soils to disturbance by erosion and land conversion is one of the great uncertainties in assessing the carrying capacity of tropical landscapes to grow food for future generations and in predicting greenhouse gas fluxes (GHG) from soils to the atmosphere and, hence, future earth system dynamics. Here, we describe version 1.0 of an open access database created as part of the project &ldquo;Tropical soil organic carbon dynamics along erosional disturbance gradients in relation to variability in soil geochemistry and land use&rdquo; (TropSOC). TropSOC v1.0 contains spatial and temporal explicit data on soil, vegetation, environmental properties and land management collected from 136 pristine tropical forest and cropland plots between 2017 and 2020 as part of several monitoring and sampling campaigns in the Eastern Congo Basin and the East African Rift Valley System. The results of several laboratory experiments focusing on soil microbial activity, C cycling and C stabilization in soils complement the dataset to deliver one of the first landscape scale datasets to study the linkages and feedbacks between geology, geomorphology and pedogenesis as controls on biogeochemical cycles in a variety of natural and managed systems in the African Tropics. The hierarchical and interdisciplinary structure of the TropSOC database allows for linking a wide range of parameters and observations on soil and vegetation dynamics along with other supporting information that may also be measured at one or more levels of the hierarchy. TropSOC&rsquo;s data marks a significant contribution to improve our understanding of the fate of biogeochemical cycles in dynamic and diverse tropical African (agro-)ecosystems. TropSOC v1.0 can be accessed through the supplementary material provided as part of this manuscript or as a separate download via the websites of the Congo Biogeochemistry observatory and the GFZ data repository where version updates to the database will be provided as the project develops.</p

Beyond ethnic diversity: the role of teacher care for interethnic relations

Drawing on the role of teachers for peer ecologies, we investigated whether students favored ethnically homogenous over ethnically diverse relationships, depending on classroom diversity and perceived teacher care. We specifically studied students’ intra- and interethnic relationships in classrooms with different ethnic compositions, accounting for homogeneous subgroups forming on the basis of ethnicity and gender diversity (i.e., ethnic-demographic faultlines). Based on multilevel social network analyses of dyadic networks between 1299 early adolescents in 70 German fourth grade classrooms, the results indicated strong ethnic homophily, particularly driven by German students who favored ethnically homogenous dyads over mixed dyads. As anticipated, the results showed that there was more in-group bias if perceived teacher care was low rather than high. Moreover, stronger faultlines were associated with stronger in-group bias; however, this relation was moderated by teacher care: If students perceived high teacher care, they showed a higher preference for mixed-ethnic dyads, even in classrooms with strong faultlines. These findings highlight the central role of teachers as agents of positive diversity management and the need to consider contextual classroom factors other than ethnic diversity when investigating intergroup relations in schools