Facing differences with an open mind: Openness to experience, salience of intragroup differences, and performance of diverse work groups. The Academy of Management Journal

This study examined how the performance of diverse teams is affected by member openness to experience and the extent to which team reward structure emphasizes intragroup differences. Fifty-eight heterogeneous four-person teams engaged in an interactive task. Teams in which reward structure converged with diversity (i.e., “faultline ” teams) performed more poorly than teams in which reward structure cut across differences between group members or pointed to a “superordinate identity.” High openness to experience positively influenced teams in which differences were salient (i.e., faultline and “cross-categorized ” teams) but not teams with a superordi-nate identity. This effect was mediated by information elaboration. When important decisions have to be made, or-ganizations often turn to teams because teams are expected to have more and better informational resources than individuals (Ilgen, Hollenbeck, Johnson, & Jundt, 2005). Teams in organizations have become more diverse in terms of their demo