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Diversity and the Effects of Culture 99

Members’ perceptions about team diversity matter as well. LeDoux, Gorman,
and Woehr found that when members perceived themselves as similar, relationship
67
conflict was reduced. Further, when members had different perceptions of one
another (in other words, were not in consensus about how they would describe other
team members), both task and relationship conflict increased and cohesion decreased.
Purvanova investigated the role of group members “feeling known” by their team-
68
mates. She postulated that feeling known is a basic human motivation and found
that when group members believe that others have an accurate picture of them, inter-
personal trust, psychological safety, satisfaction, and positive feelings about the team
are increased. Interestingly, she found these effects to be stronger for virtual than
face- to-face teams. West and her associates found, with respect to mixed- race dyads
and groups, that when members believed they were similar on a variety of attitudes,
69
their anxiety was reduced and they performed better. Of course, it takes time to get
to know one’s teammates. Harrison, Price, and Bell discovered that the influence of
surface- level differences decreased over time, but the influence of deep diversity
factors increased. 70
However, it can be a challenge for group members who think differently to learn
to work together. Yet work together they must, if the team is to succeed. Members
must learn to develop a team identity that somehow encompasses their individual
diversity. One approach is to identify members’ diverse features and use the diversity
itself as a way of defining the team. This is what the teams studied by Rink and
Ellemers did, with members using work- goal and information differences to create
positive identities for their teams. 71
It takes time for team members to mesh and learn to work as a team. Savelsbergh
and her associates explain that such learning involves jointly exploring and creating
meaning, reflecting on the group’s goals and tasks, talking about mistakes and sur-
72
prises, seeking feedback, and experimenting, or trying out different approaches. Of
these factors, having clear goals and task interdependence were most associated with
team performance. Moreover, working together is fostered by openness of the mem-
bers to one another’s cognitive differences. Mitchell and her associates suggest that
when members value their diverse viewpoints, they will be more willing to share and
debate those viewpoints, which enhances knowledge creation and improves decision
making. 73
A number of strategies can help build communicative competence in diverse
teams. Jessica Thompson found that when members of the interdisciplinary teams
she studied spent time together, talked about trust and the consequences for breaches
of trust, talked about the task, talked about the specialized language that their indi-
vidual disciplines used, and looked for ways to create a common language, they
established a solid foundation for building the team. Team communicative compe-
74
tence was further developed when members listened and paid attention (e.g., did not
send text messages or act bored), talked about their group processes, and engaged in
socioemotional discussions outside of team business. Humor and shared laughter
was also important. On the other hand, sarcasm, negative humor, debates related
to maintaining someone’s ego, jockeying for power, and acting bored hurt team
development.

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