April 2, 2009

 

By Lindsay Key '11MFA

 

For years, many employers have assumed that bringing employees from diverse backgrounds together to discuss an issue will lead to a more creative solution.  However, after studying 22 years of meta-analysis on the topic, UNCW industrial/organizational psychologist Jessica Magnus found that this doesn’t always happen. 

 

In an article published in the March issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, co-authored with colleague Leslie DeChurch of the University of Central Florida, Magnus concludes that a group of diverse employees are more likely to talk about what they have in common than to share unique perspectives, meaning these groups are less likely to realize their informational superiority. Their findings were recently featured in ScienceBlog.

 

“Diverse groups of individuals get together and talk about what they already know,” Magnus explained, because, at the core, most individuals seek psychological reaffirmation.

 

From 2004-2008, Magnus and DeChurch analyzed published studies that concerned approximately 4,800 groups and 17,000 people.  They looked most closely at what factors encouraged or prohibited employees from sharing their unique perspectives with one another. 

 

What they found, according to Magnus, is that people are less likely to share their unique insights in group discussion, focusing more discussion on what everyone already knows. This phenomenon was particularly likely when groups were diverse. Employees were more likely to share if they were encouraged to share, if the discussions were structured to promote information sharing, and if the task was framed as solvable.  In this way, team leaders play an important role in the outcome of a diverse group’s discussion.

 

Magnus, an assistant professor in the department of management, also researches two other branches in management and industrial/organizational psychology: Work-Family Conflict and Whistleblowing.  She teaches classes in human resources management, organizational behavior, and management ethics.  Most recently, she led a group of students majoring in human resources to the 2009 North Carolina HR Games Competition held at NC A&T in Greensboro on March 21. The HR Games is a jeopardy-style competition geared toward preparing college seniors for taking the Professional in Human Resources certification exam.

 

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Photo courtesy of Jessica Magnus