Diversity is generally accepted as a good thing, with MIT research highlighting how diversity within our organizations can boost the bottom line of those businesses.  This typically occurs because diversity brings a wider spread of experience, which adds significantly to the collective knowledge of the workplace, thus making that group perform better.

This diversity comes at a cost, however, as research from the University of Pennsylvania highlights that coordinating a diverse team is much harder than coordinating a homogenous team.  This was further emphasized by research from Stanford, which highlighted the challenges in collaborating across the kind of global teams that are so common in the biggest organizations.

The researchers asked participants, selected from India and the United States, to play an online strategy game whereby cooperation and collaboration were desirable strategies.

Each participant played the game with an online partner.  They were required to choose from one of three scenarios.  The first scenario would see each partner rewarded with an equal sum.  The second and third would see unequal rewards given to each player, with weighting given to one player or the other.  The catch was that if the players didn’t select the same outcome as their partner, then both would get nothing.  This resulted in the majority of players selecting the equal option.

Interestingly, however, more Indian players would select the unequal option than their American peers.  The researchers report that they believe this shows how the cultures of each country underpin the different strategies and expectations of both themselves and the other players.  Players in India were more likely to choose an unequal option, sometimes even when it left them with less money.

Responding to crises

A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit and Education First in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis highlighted the importance of international collaboration to help organizations respond to the situation.

The survey found that rather than contracting into their shells and focusing on core markets, organizations responded to the financial crash by becoming even more international.

“While previous recessions have often resulted in businesses reducing their risk exposure with a renewed focus on their core markets, an overwhelming majority of respondents in the survey conducted for this report confirm that their companies are becoming more global in their outlook and ambitions,” the report says.

Global fluency

If coordinating across global teams is the key to untapping the benefits of diversity, a high degree of “global fluency” is likely to be crucial.  Operating in this global landscape requires more than being able to order a coffee in a foreign land, but rather to truly see and understand perspectives beyond our own.

For instance, research from HEC Paris highlights the cultural aspects of creativity, with what the researchers refer to as “cultural bundles” playing a crucial role.  These include both the cultural values that characterize a particular country and the strength of the norms that enforce these values.

While the researchers highlight that there is no such thing as a “creative nationality”, there are nonetheless cultural values, and the enforcement of those values through norms, that help to define whether any latent creativity is realized.

“We find that cultures are not more or less creative than one another, rather their cultural values and their enforcement determine how people achieve creativity in a country,” they explain.

Cultural understanding

This requires a degree of cultural understanding to ensure that the best of people can be tapped into.  For instance, the researchers highlight that in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Mexico, cultural values such as collectivism and uncertainty avoidance are more common and so domain-relevant knowledge is extremely important for creativity.

Meanwhile, in cultures such as Sweden, a weaker relationship exists between domain-relevant knowledge and creativity, as the culture is more grounded in individualism, femininity, and low uncertainty avoidance.

And then you have countries, such as the U.K., where individualism and low uncertainty avoidance is paired with masculinity, which precipitates a creativity style that is rooted in flexibility, open personality, and cognitive style.

Speaking the language

So creativity can be achieved in a number of ways, but to do so requires that managers understand the people in their team and the cultures that underpin their ways of working.

“Our results are important, particularly for multinational enterprises,” the researchers explain. “The different countries they occupy are characterized by very different cultural bundles and, as such, will push their employees to engage in creative efforts in a particular way.”

A recent survey from global education firm Education First highlighted the value of getting this right, as of the 500 or so organizations surveyed from around the world, those who were achieving the highest revenue growth and the most creativity were those who had the highest degree of “global fluency”.

This requires not just international experience, but a deep understanding of the verbal and nonverbal interactions a team can have, and a curiosity and acceptance of different cultures that can help with the coordination challenges a diverse team presents.

We need to move beyond simply copying practices and policies from one country to another, and instead understand the cultural bundles of our teams, both in terms of the nationalities and cultures within them, and indeed between them.  Only then will we reap the dividend that diverse teams can provide.