Abstract
Today, an amazing blend in workforce diversity can be seen around the globe. However, when it comes to evaluating the effects of this diversity for work outcomes, existing research paints an inconsistent picture. While some studies suggest that a diverse workforce can be a valuable asset to organizations seeking a competitive advantage in the global economy, other findings imply that workforce diversity presents firms with major challenges. Given this purported double-edged nature of diversity, the purpose of the present dissertation is to provide additional empirical evidence supporting the optimistic or pessimistic view of workforce diversity. Consisting of three independent empirical research articles, this cumulative thesis examines the link between different dimensions of diversity and various work-related outcomes by applying both quantitative and qualitative research methods, adopting new perspectives as well as using diverse research samples.
The first article investigates the impact of workforce diversity on various work attitudes from a generational perspective. Instead of studying individual differences, the chapter takes a human resource management approach and explores generational dissimilarities that managers have experienced and analyzes how they deal with them. Findings from an in-depth interview study show that especially when it comes to careers, work-life balance, motivation, and preferred leader qualities, generational differences are apparent. Further, it seems that many companies have already implemented initial measures to adapt to the varying needs of a multigenerational workforce, however, still lack a comprehensive approach.
The second chapter of this dissertation focuses on three different types of demographical diversity, namely cultural origin, gender, and age, and their link with career patterns. Using optimal matching analysis, this study examines the curriculum vitae data from 74 knowledge workers to identify typical career paths and find explanations for their occurrence. The analysis distinguishes five different career patterns that are described by varying levels of mobility. While results suggest that age may have an impact on people’s career trajectories, gender and cultural origin seem to not affect the predominance of particular patterns.
The third research paper focuses on the role of diversity of intelligences in global virtual teams (GVTs) and its impact on performance. Utilizing a sample of 437 multicultural virtual teams, the study adopts a configurational approach and applies fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to evaluate the combined effects of emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, and general cognitive intelligence on team performance. The results show that various equifinal (i.e., having the same end or result) configurations of the three types of intelligence can stimulate high performance in GVTs. The study proposes three archetypes of successful GVTs.