Diversity Faultlines and Their Impact on Intergroup Conflict

By Jake Wider, Kevin Siow, Gracy Ahuja, Aidan Hert, and Nick Navarro

Acar, F. P. (2010). Analyzing the effects of diversity perceptions and shared leadership on emotional conflict: a dynamic approach. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(10), 1733-1753.

This paper presents research that relates the effects of both diversity and emotional conflict with each other over a period of time. It also provides an empirical basis for the OB assertion that group members’ perceptions of each other move from a surface level to a deeper level the longer that they interact with their fellow group members. This is relevant to our project, as our project relates to team diversity and how that can lead to conflict.

Earley, C. P., & Mosakowski, E. (2000). Creating hybrid team cultures: An empirical test of transnational team functioning. Academy of Management journal, 43(1), 26-49.

This study reveals the effects of having a diverse group of individuals working on a team and it found that the groups that had high heterogeneity effectively were stronger and did better than groups that were not as heterogeneous. Overall, having a more diverse team helps the team to be more effective, and efficient. The article goes on to describe how by looking at fault lines you can learn from the implications of transnational settings to create strong and dynamic teams.

Heidl, R. A., Steensma, H. K., & Phelps, C. (2014). Divisive faultlines and the unplanned dissolutions of multipartner alliances. Organization Science, 25(5), 1351-1371.

Heidl, Kevin, and Phelps shed some light on divisive fault lines and their effects on multipartner alliances as previous empirical research on multipartner alliance stability has remained inconclusive. In this paper, longitudinal analysis of 59 multipartner alliances shows that fault lines increase the risk of dissolutions amongst pairs of partners and between the subgroups of partners divided by fault lines.

Li, J., & Hambrick, D. C. (2005). Factional groups: A new vantage on demographic faultlines, conflict, and disintegration in work teams. Academy of Management Journal, 48(5), 794-813.

This article introduced the concept of the factional group which means a group that’s made up of a small number of social entities. Groups are very important in developing projects, in which merger integrations, bilateral task forces and joint ventures contribute towards the goal of the overall group. However, all of the team members have different kinds of thoughts, so sometimes there is some conflict. Due to differences among individuals, in intergender task conflict, emotional conflict, and behavioral disintegration. Which has an overall negative impact on the group.

Peñarroja, V., González-Anta, B., Orengo, V., Zornoza, A., & Gamero, N. (2022). Reducing relationship conflict in virtual teams with diversity Faultlines: the effect of an online affect management intervention on the rate of growth of team resilience. Social Science Computer Review, 40(2), 388-404.

This study researches relationship conflict and its effect on virtual teams and how. To affect diversity faultlines. There was a study held with 52, 4 person teams and they had to sit through interventions about handling their emotions. The findings of this research  study is relevant to our topic because we are looking to find the connection between diversity faultlines and current events. This leads us to the question of how employees can prevent team conflicts that are caused by diversity fault lines.

Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of personality and social psychology, 90(5), 751.

This article shows that intergroup contact usually reduces prejudice. It uses 713 samples from 515 different studies to find this. It finds that intergroup contact theory applies to areas beyond the ethnic and racial boundaries it was originally designed for. This is important and relevant to our project, as the intergroup contact theory proposes a potential solution to the problems we have presented.