From being diverse to becoming diverse: A dynamic team diversity theory

• Author: Bertolt Meyer,Jia Li,Jürgen Wegge,Meir Shemla
• Published date: 01 October 2018
• Date: 01 October 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2272

RESEARCH ARTICLE

From being diverse to becoming diverse: A dynamic team

diversity theory

Jia Li

1

|Bertolt Meyer

2

|Meir Shemla

3

|Jürgen Wegge

4

1

Group of Human Performance Management,

Eindhoven University of Technology,

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

2

Department of Organizational and Economic

Psychology, Technische Universität Chemnitz,

Chemnitz, Germany

3

Department of Organization and Personnel

Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam,

The Netherlands

4

Department of Work and Organizational

Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden,

Dresden, Germany

Correspondence

Jia Li, Group of Human Performance

Management, Eindhoven University of

Technology, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The

Netherlands.

Email: j.li@tue.nl

Summary

On the basis of the literature of open systems and team diversity, we present a new dynamic

team diversity theory that explains the effect of change in team diversity on team functioning

and performance in the context of dynamic team composition. Building upon the conceptualiza-

tion of teams as open systems, we describe the enlargement and decline of team variety,

separation, and disparity through member addition, subtraction, and substitution. Then, focusing

on diversity enlargement, we theorize the contemporaneous and lasting effects of team diversity

change on team performance change and on team processes and states leading to them. Dynamic

team diversity theory expands the focus of team diversity research from teams' being more

diverse than others to teams' becoming more diverse than before. It aims to advance team

diversity research to be better aligned with the organizational reality of dynamic team

composition. We also discuss methodological considerations in subsequent empirical testing of

the theory and highlight how the theory and future research may help to guide organizational

practice in recomposing work teams.

KEYWORDS

change, dynamic teamcomposition, team diversity, team performance

1|INTRODUCTION

Team diversity, as a pivotal aspect of team composition, refers to team

members' differences in demographic and psychological attributes. It

has been found to affect various team processes, states, and outcomes

(Horwitz & Horwitz, 2007; van Dijk, van Engen, & van Knippenberg,

2012). Instead of being beneficial or detrimental, the impact of team

diversity is found to be contingent on a number of contextual factors,

such as embedding industries, team task characteristics, leadership

styles, and members' attitudes towards diversity (Joshi & Roh, 2009;

van Knippenberg, De Dreu, & Homan, 2004; van Knippenberg & Mell,

2016; van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007; Wegge, Roth, Neubach,

Schmidt, & Kanfer, 2008).

The extant research has provided valuable insights into why, how,

and in what conditions diverse teams outperform or underperform

homogenous teams (van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007; Williams &

O'Reilly III, 1998). However, a key issue that has restricted further

development of the field is that the majority of research has treated

teams as static entities with unchanging composition, whereas in

organizational practice, the boundaries of work teams are in fact fluid

(Arrow & McGrath, 1995; Mathieu, Tannenbaum, Donsbach, & Alliger,

2014; McGrath, Arrow, & Berdahl, 2000; Wageman, Gardner, &

Mortensen, 2012). Teams—and their constituting members—change

from time to time, as new members join and/or existing members leave

(i.e., member addition, subtraction, and substitution; Arrow & McGrath,

1995). Thus, rather than being static, team diversity is likely to vary

over time. In the case of member addition and subtraction, team

diversity is surely changed, because team size—the basis on which

members' differences are contrasted—is altered. In the case of member

substitution, substituting members hardly possess exactly the same

demographic and psychological attributes as substituted members,

which thus highly likely alters team diversity.

Acknowledging team composition as dynamic raises the question

as to whether current theory about static (or stable) team diversity is

applicable to the organizational reality of dynamic team diversity,

and, if not, how becoming more diverse affects subsequent team

functioning and performance. In this paper, we address this void by

developing a new dynamic team diversity theory (DTDT) that

expounds how team diversity changes and how such change affects

team performance outcomes. Departing from previous research on

the changing effects of unchanged team diversity (e.g., Harrison, Price,

Gavin, & Florey, 2002), DTDT starts with a reconceptualization of

Received: 3 February 2016 Revised: 4 January 2018 Accepted: 28 January 2018

DOI: 10.1002/job.2272

956 Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J Organ Behav. 2018;39:956–970.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job