How Diversity Affects Teams

This dissertation examines team diversity effects with a focus on their management. Against the background of recent significant societal challenges, diverse teams are often seen as crucial for fostering innovation, creativity, and decision quality. However, team diversity does not naturally translate into better outcomes because social categorization can trigger dysfunctional subgrouping, potentially hindering the effective elaboration of diverse perspectives. Therefore, team diversity management plays a central role in enabling teams to leverage their diversity. Across four papers, this dissertation examines whether and how team diversity training, team functional leadership, and perceived inclusion are effective management practices. Designing and implementing diversity management practices requires a profound understanding of the mechanisms underlying the team diversity–effectiveness link. Therefore, the first paper systematically summarizes the social and informational mechanisms studied in team diversity research in a conceptual review. The review reveals that social and informational mechanisms are inseparably intertwined, suggesting that diversity management should optimally address social and informational aspects of teamwork. Building on these findings, the subsequent papers examine diversity training and functional leadership aimed at developing a shared team identity and fostering information elaboration, as well as the mutual evolution of perceived inclusion and information sharing. Results indicate that leadership and training are indeed positively associated with team creativity through increased information elaboration and partly through identification. Integrating these findings highlights the importance of both proactively equipping teams with abilities and skills to leverage their diversity and reactively intervening once subgrouping has occurred. This dissertation advances team diversity literature through conceptual insights and methodological advancements, providing practical implications for managing diverse teams.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

Year

2026

Author dc:creator

• Reinert, Christoph

Contributors dc:contributor

• Büngeler, Claudia
• Schultz, Carsten
• Hartmann, Silja

• Team Diversity
• Diversity Training
• Functional Leadership
• Perceived Inclusion

Repository record source_url

https://macau.uni-kiel.de/receive/macau_mods_00008688

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:macau.uni-kiel.de:macau_mods_00008688