Published on:

Social network diversity compared to demographic diversity

A study, reported on Columbia ideas@work, distinguishes between two kinds of diversity. Diversity of social networks varies according to how commonly and well team members knew each other before joining the team; diversity of demographics varies according to race, age, gender, national origin, religion and other mostly-innate characteristics.

The research, which looked at 1,518 project teams at a contract R&D firm and measured team effectiveness by timely completion of its project, showed that demographic diversity had a negative effect on “internal density,” whereby team members already part of other team members’ networks “get a running start in working together.” Social network diversity had no effect on internal density.

This research suggests that a law department manager staffing a team for demographic mix will create a less effective team than if the manager staffs it with members who previously knew and worked with each other. (See my post of Jan. 4, 2005 on virtual teams.)

Posted in:
Published on:
Updated:

Comments are closed.