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VALUING DIVERSITY

Explore the beneficial and harmful consequences of diversity, understand its importance in group dynamics, and learn strategies to turn diversity among members into a strength. Discover ways to manage diversity effectively for improved productivity, creativity, relationships, and decision-making in groups.

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VALUING DIVERSITY

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  1. VALUING DIVERSITY Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills 11th Edition David W. Johnson Frank P. Johnson

  2. Purposes • Diversity can have beneficial or harmful consequences, depending on how it is managed • Diversity is important for groups • There are barriers to interacting with diverse peers • There are ways to make diversity among members a strength

  3. Diversity: Can Have Beneficial Consequences • Achievement & Productivity • Creative Problem-solving • Growth in Cognitive and Moral Reasoning • Increased Perspective-taking • Improved Relationships • General Sophistication

  4. Diversity: Can Have Harmful Consequences • Lower Achievement and Productivity • Closed-minded Rejection of New Information • Increased Egocentrism • Negative Relationships • Hostility, Rejection, Divisiveness, Bullying, Scapegoating, Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Racism.

  5. Sources of Diversity • Demographic Diversity • Personal Characteristics • Abilities and Skills

  6. Why Is Managing Diversity Important? • We increasingly live in one world • Diversity in most settings is inevitable • There has been an economic globalization of business

  7. Group Composition and Test Performance • Production tasks • Intellective tasks • Decision-making tasks

  8. Disadvantages of Homogeneous Group Membership • Lack of controversy and clash of perspectives • Tend to avoid risk • Function best in static rather than changing conditions

  9. Difficulties With Research • What attributes are important? • Can one attribute make a difference? • Are group tasks simple or diverse? • What is diversity, anyway? • How does group composition and task interact to affect performance?

  10. Barriers to Interacting With Diverse Peers • Stereotypes – a set of beliefs that associates a whole group of people with certain traits • Categorizing • In-group/out-group • Saves energy • Fundamental attribution error • Scapegoating • Stereotype threat

  11. More Barriers: Prejudice • An unjustified negative attitude toward a person based solely on that individual’s membership in a group other than one’s own • Ethnocentrism • Cultural Conditioning • Modern Racism

  12. More Barriers • Discrimination • Blaming the Victim • Attribution Theory • Culture Clash

  13. Making Diversity a Strength • Structure and Strengthen Positive Interdependence • Create a Superordinate Group Identity • Gain Sophistication Through Intergroup Relations • Clarify Miscommunications

  14. Summary • If diversity is managed well, it will enhance group work and decisions • Diverse groups are valuable for effective decisions. • We can identify barriers which keep us from interacting with diverse peers and overcome them • To capitalize on our differences, we can make diversity among members a strength

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