Does Diversity Foster Diversity? A Multilevel Model Analysis with GRAND

• In Event: 161 - Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Social Capital and Networks I

Abstract

The rhetoric of diversity argues that diversity is beneficial for organizations and widely accepted by organizations. However, many studies challenge this idea, showing that diversity leads to communication difficulties, conflicts among co-workers, decreases in trust, and other negative outcomes. Aiming to solve the debate over the value of diversity, this paper conceptualizes two types of diversity, compositional diversity at the macro-level and interactional diversity at the micro-level, to examine how the diversity designed by the organization efficaciously affects boundary-spanning interactions among organization members. Using the social network and interview data of the GRAND Network Centre of Excellence, a Canadian research network, this article conducts mixed methods to investigate the dynamics of cross-disciplinary interactions among researchers. The findings show that in research collaborations an organizational design composed of multiple disciplines both fosters and hinders interactions across disciplinary boundaries – it facilitates such interactions by creating the opportunities to expand a multidisciplinary network, but causes barriers between researchers by exposing them to the differences in their disciplines. Therefore, an organizational design of multidisciplinarity may reach its maximum effects if accompanied by other measures such as developing networks among researchers, promoting motivations in multidisciplinarity, and fostering common ground among disciplines.

Author

• Guang Ying Mo, University of Toronto