Harnessing Demographic Differences in Organizations: What Moderates the Effects of Workplace Diversity?

To account for the double-edged nature of demographic workplace diversity (i.e. relational demography, work group diversity, and organizational diversity) effects on social integration, performance and well-being related variables, research has moved away from simple main effect approaches and started examining variables that moderate these effects. While there is no shortage of primary studies of the conditions under which diversity leads to positive or negative outcomes, it remains unclear which contingency factors make it work. Using the Categorization-Elaboration Model (van Knippenberg, DeDreu, & Homan 2004) as our theoretical lens we review variables moderating the effects of workplace diversity on social integration, performance and well-being outcomes, focusing on factors that organizations and managers have control over (i.e. strategy, unit design, HR, leadership, climate/culture, and individual differences). We point out avenues for future research and conclude with practical implications

Respectful leadership:Reducing performance challenges posed by leader role incongruence and gender dissimilarity

We investigate how respectful leadership can help overcome the challenges for follower performance that female leaders face when working (especially with male) followers. First, based on role congruity theory, we illustrate the biases faced by female leaders. Second, based on research on gender (dis-)similarity, we propose that these biases should be particularly pronounced when working with a male follower. Finally, we propose that respectful leadership is most conducive to performance in female leader–male follower dyads compared with all other gender configurations. A multi-source field study (N = 214) provides partial support for our hypothesis. While our hypothesized effect was confirmed, respectful leadership seems to be generally effective for female leaders irrespective of follower gender, thus lending greater support in this context to the arguments of role congruity rather than gender dissimilarity

Nothing succeeds like moderation: A social self-regulation perspective on cultural dissimilarity and performance.

Addressing inconsistencies in relational demography research, we examine the relationship between cultural dissimilarity and individual performance through the lens of social self-regulation theory, which extends the social identity perspective in relational demography with the analysis of social self-regulation. We propose that social self-regulation in culturally diverse teams manifests itself as performance monitoring (i.e., individuals' actions to meet team performance standards and peer expectations). Contingent on the status associated with individuals' cultural background, performance monitoring is proposed to have a curvilinear relationship with individual performance and to mediate between cultural dissimilarity and performance. Multilevel moderated mediation analyses of time-lagged data from 316 members of 69 teams confirmed these hypotheses. Cultural dissimilarity had a negative relationship with performance monitoring for high cultural status members, and a positive relationship for low cultural status members. Performance monitoring had a curvilinear relationship with individual performance that became decreasingly positive. Cultural dissimilarity thus was increasingly negatively associated with performance for high cultural status members, and decreasingly positively for low cultural status members. These findings suggest that cultural dissimilarity to the team is not unconditionally negative for the individual but in moderation may in fact have positive motivational effects

Creating Inclusion to Leverage Workforce Diversity from a Work Characteristics Perspective

Over the past couple of decades, organisational scholars have been investigating barriers that prevent minorities (e.g. women) from entering and remaining at all levels of organisations. Consequently, the management of workforce diversity and inclusion became a central topic for organisations and research. Despite this attention, our understanding of how diversity shapes the work context in organisations and how these can be translated into an inclusive climate that fosters employees’ performance and well-being is limited. Based on insights of the diversity and inclusion literature and occupational health research, this chapter presents a conceptual framework that suggests that work environments are influenced by the extent of workforce diversity that is present in the organisation (e.g. homogeneous organisations mostly have processes and infrastructures that are developed by and based on the needs of the majority group, minority employees might thus face an unfavourable work context). Moreover, the framework points out that the work context affects employees’ experience of inclusion. The more resourceful one’s work (e.g. the freedom to fulfil task in an authentic way) and the less demanding the work environment (e.g. fewer discrimination), the more one feels an accepted member of their work environment. Higher levels of feeling included is likely to result in better performance and well-being of employees. Finally, the framework proposes that inclusive organisations, in which employees feel good and perform well, will in the long term have more diversity among employees and more gender equality because they attract and retain a diverse workforce