"Structural" diversity benefits a team through the ability to tap a wider range of resources, according to doctoral student Jonathon Cummings of MIT. He studied 182 project teams in the competitive recognition program of a very large telecommunications firm (100,000+ employees worldwide) by reviewing project documentation, surveying all members and interviewing some. Performance ratings came from the program and included senior-executive ratings on seven metrics including teamwork, innovation, and quality.
Groups that shared more information in and outside of the group performed better. But this was especially true for groups with greater structural diversity: "Members in different locations, who represent different functions, who report to different managers, and who work in different business units can benefit from unique sources of knowledge outside the group," Cummings wrote. He cited three instances in which teams were able to speed up their work by borrowing technology they might not have learned about otherwise from the home organizations of group members. Diversity in age or sex, the only demographics measured, had little significant effect on performance.
Source: Cummings, J. (04), "Work Groups, Structural Diversity, and Knowledge Sharing in a Global Organization," Management Science 50(3):352.
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