12/23/2024

Research: Why Forming Diverse Teams Is Harder in Uncertain Times

A lack of personal control can lead to segregation

Recent large-scale events like the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing wars, social uprisings and rising inflation have deeply unsettled our sense of personal agency at the workplace. In times like these, how do employees respond to that feeling of loss of control?

In our recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we uncovered a troubling effect. When employees feel a lack of personal control — whether due to workplace stressors, economic instability, or global crises — they may subconsciously seek out coworkers who are more similar to themselves. This attraction to similarity can lead to the forming of more homogenous teams, limiting exposure to diverse perspectives and, ultimately, stifling innovation and collaboration. At the broader societal level, our finding could at least partly explain a sharp increase in social divides that we are seeing lately — from racial and religious segregation to heightened political polarization.

How a Lack of Personal Control Can Lead to Segregation

Our research included 11 correlational and experimental studies with over 90,000 participants from 60 countries. Across these studies, we consistently found that when employees experience a lack of personal control, they are more likely to gravitate towards those who resemble them — whether in race, religion, socioeconomic class or personality characteristics.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.