How attitude certainty tempers the effects of faultlines in demographically diverse teams

Decision Sciences(all) SOCIAL-STRUCTURE ENVIRONMENTAL UNCERTAINTY PROJECTION COMPUTATIONAL MODEL Applied Mathematics OPINION CERTAINTY 05 social sciences Attitude certainty Agent based computational modeling Teams Social influence Computational Mathematics Modelling and Simulation WORK GROUP DIVERSITY ORGANIZATIONAL GROUPS 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Demographic diversity ASSUMED SIMILARITY Demographic faultline FIRM PERFORMANCE CONFLICT Computer Science(all)
DOI: 10.1007/s10588-011-9087-5 Publication Date: 2011-03-29T08:28:54Z
ABSTRACT
Lau and Murnighan's faultline theory suggests that strong demographic faultlines can undermine cohesion in work teams. A strong faultline splits a team into internally homogeneous but mutually dissimilar subgroups based on demographic characteristics. Social influence processes within these subgroups then lead to the polarization of team members' attitudes along the divisions imposed by the faultline. However, faultline theory hitherto neglects effects of attitude certainty. Research shows that the certainty with which individuals hold their attitudes affects social influence processes. We extend theoretical faultline research by integrating attitude certainty. For this, we incorporate the interplay of the dynamics of attitude certainty and social influence into a formal model of demographic faultline effects developed by Flache and Mas. Computational experiments suggest a moderation effect. Demographic faultlines only affect team cohesion if attitude certainty is low. We discuss implications for future research.
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