Diversity is something that has numerous advantages for teams and organizations, so it’s perhaps not surprising that many organizations now claim that diversity is high on their agenda.  Alas, despite a growing number of managers claiming to be in favor of diversity, they tend to prefer it in other teams rather than their own.

That was the finding of new research from the University of Basel, which explored the kind of people we prefer to work with in our team.

The researchers were intrigued to explore how most managers still tend to be white men, despite the majority of organizations lauding the virtues of diversity in their policies and communication.  What causes this dissonance between desires and reality?

Diversity dissonance

The researchers conducted a number of experiments involving several hundred participants to see if there was a difference in how we select people for ourselves and for other people.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study found that opinions vary considerably on diversity, even within the same individual.  For instance, while it’s common for people to see the value of diversity in terms of the fresh insights and perspectives it can bring, they also believe it could be difficult to connect to someone with very different views or who speaks a different language.

The heart of their perspective on diversity seems to be the decision-making process, as it appears that people question the value of diversity if they’re personally affected by the practical aspects of integrated differing opinions.

In other words, we seem to prefer heterogeneous teams for our own, despite wanting diverse teams elsewhere.  All of which suggests that teams could become considerably more diverse if those charged with recruiting for them were not solely those directly affected by their decision.

“Research shows that people’s perception of and the importance they attach to diversity have key implications for people’s decision making,” the researchers conclude. “In a next step it would be important to gain a better understanding of the evaluation of diversity to discuss and resolve concerns about potential disadvantages. This way, people may then be more willing to include dissimilar people in their own teams.”