What types of diversity benefit workers? Empirical evidence on the effects of co-worker dissimilarity on the performance of employees

"This study explores the consequences of grouping workers into diverse divisions on the performance of employees using a dataset containing the detailed personnel records of a large U.S. firm from 1989 to 1994. In particular, I examine the effects of demographic dissimilarity among co-workers,...

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Published inIndustrial relations (Berkeley) Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 678 - 712
Main Author KURTULUS, FIDAN ANA
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.10.2011
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects
Academic Achievement
Age Differences
Age groups
Altersstruktur
Arbeitsgruppe
Arbeitsleistung
Arbeitsproduktivität
Beschäftigungsdauer
Beschäftigungsstruktur
Correlation analysis
Data analysis
Demographic indicators
Demographics
Employees
Ethnicity
Geschlechterverteilung
Gesundheitswesen
Heterogenität
Level of education
Lohnstruktur
Multinationales Unternehmen
Occupational roles
Organizational Effectiveness
Personaleinsatz
Produktivitätseffekt
Qualifikationsstruktur
Racial Differences
Rasse
Sex
Sex Differences
Sociodemographic Factors
Socioeconomic factors
Studies
Tenure
U.S.A
USA
Wages
Work organization
Workers
Workplace diversity
United States > US
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Summary:"This study explores the consequences of grouping workers into diverse divisions on the performance of employees using a dataset containing the detailed personnel records of a large U.S. firm from 1989 to 1994. In particular, I examine the effects of demographic dissimilarity among co-workers, namely differences in age, gender, and race among employees who work together within divisions, and non-demographic dissimilarity, namely differences in education, work function, firm tenure, division tenure, performance, and wages among employees within divisions. I find evidence that age dissimilarity, dissimilarity in firm tenure, and performance dissimilarity are associated with lower worker performance, while wage differences are associated with higher worker performance. My analysis also reveals that the effects of certain types of dissimilarities get smaller in magnitude the longer a worker is a part of a division. Finally, the paper provides evidence that the relationships between performance and the various measures of dissimilarity vary by occupational area and division size." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku). Die Untersuchung enthält quantitative Daten. Forschungsmethode: empirisch-quantitativ; empirisch. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf den Zeitraum 1989 bis 1994.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-VQML0PTZ-L
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ArticleID:IREL657
The author’s affiliation is Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. E‐mail
fidan@econs.umass.edu
The author thanks Wally Hendricks for granting access to the data, and numerous colleagues and seminar participants at Cornell University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Rutgers University, Colgate University, the 2010 American Economic Association Annual Meetings, the 2008 Eastern Economic Association Annual Conference, the 2008 Annual Meetings of the Society of Labor Economists, and the 2008 Western Economic Association Annual Conference for their insightful comments and suggestions. Copies of the computer programs used to generate the results presented in this paper are available from the author; however, the data are confidential.
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ISSN:1468-232X
0019-8676
1468-232X
DOI:10.1111/j.1468-232X.2011.00657.x