Ethnic Diversity and Creativity in Small Groups

TLDR

Managers believe that well‑managed ethnic diversity can give organizations competitive advantages, yet this belief is largely anecdotal rather than empirically supported. The study discusses directions for future research on the degree of diversity, task nature, and group process. A controlled experiment compared brainstorming performance on the Tourist Problem between homogeneous Anglo‑American groups and ethnically diverse groups comprising Anglo‑, Asian, African, and Hispanic Americans. Ideas from ethnically diverse groups were judged higher in quality, effectiveness, and feasibility than those from homogeneous groups, while homogeneous groups reported slightly greater group attraction.

Abstract

There is a growing belief among managers that ethnic diversity, when well managed, can provide organizations with certain competitive advantages. But the belief in this value-inl diversity hypothesis rests largely on anecdotal rather than empirical evidence. Results are reported ofa controlled experimental study that compares the performance on a brainstorm ing task between groups composed of all Anglo-Americans with groups composed ofAnglo-, Asian, African, and Hispanic Americans. The particular brainstorming task used-The Tourist Problem-was chosenfor its relevancefordiversity along the dimension of ethnicity. The ideas produced by the ethnically diverse groups were judged to be of higher quality-more effective andfeasible-than the ideas produced by the homogeneous groups. Members of homogeneous groups reported marginally more attraction to their groups than did members of diverse oroups. Directions for future research with respect to the degree of diversity, the nature of the task, and group process are discussed.