Basel/Koblenz/Landau| The fact that a diverse workforce contributes to business success is now a basic consensus. Nevertheless, most people prefer to work with colleagues who are similar to them. This is the conclusion reached by a research team from the Universities of Basel and Koblenz-Landau in four related socio-psychological studies that examined attitudes to diversity in the workplace. Interestingly, the 605 study participants put together much more diverse teams for other teams than for themselves and their own work context. In their own team, differences in working style or language barriers are seen more negatively than when it comes to putting together another team. When other teams are put together, these concerns play a minor role; instead, those concerned consider it positive that the diversity of group members allows different points of view to be introduced and more innovative solutions to be found. For the study authors, this means that diversity in companies can be encouraged if recruitment and team decisions are therefore distributed among directly and not directly affected persons.
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