Past, present, and potential future of team diversity research: From compositional diversity to emergent diversity

We review research in team diversity to take stock of the current state of the science, the trajectory that led to this state, and a potential way forward that would lead to more integrative theory in diversity research. We outline how diversity research has developed into the current state of the science with growing consensus on key mediating processes in the diversity-performance relationship and growing consensus that this relationship is contingent on moderating influences. We see important challenges in moving the field forward in two key areas: first, in integrating diversity research with its emphasis on diversity in relatively stable attributes – trait diversity – with research in more state-like composition variables – state diversity; second, in integrating research in compositional diversity with research on emergent diversity – diversity in team interaction processes and team emergent states. We propose that meeting these challenges will result in more broad-ranging theory that has for instance the potential to bridge research in team diversity and individual-team dissimilarity (relational demography).

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