The 2018 World Cup highlighted the relationship between immigration, diversity, and team performance against the backdrop of intense international backlash toward both immigration and diversity. Many observers and commentators pointed to France, England, and Belgium, attributing part of their successes to immigration and their team diversity. Do similar or diverse teams actually perform better?
Organizational Research
Organizational psychology research shows that companies with the most racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to have above average financial returns, and those with the most gender diversity show better returns as well. Why might this be? It appears that diverse groups analyze information more accurately, make fewer errors, and are more innovative. For an excellent, easy-to-read summary of these findings, see David Rock’s blog.
Research in Sport
When diversity is embraced in sport organizations, performance also appears to improve, and additional benefits result. For instance, Fink and colleagues (2003) suggest that sport organizations may use reactive, compliant, or proactive approaches. Reactive approaches take fewer actions to change attitudes toward diversity, wait for problems to occur before taking actions, and usually adopt a narrower view of diversity (e.g., race, ethnicity only). Compliant approaches make efforts to comply with employment laws but do nothing to leverage diversity as a competitive advantage, failing to help diverse individuals succeed in the organizational culture. Proactive approaches genuinely reflect an understanding of the benefits of diversity. Proactive organizations commit to diversity and inclusion, exercise greater flexibility, address diversity more frequently and directly before problems occur, and strive to increase employee success and satisfaction. Research suggests that sport organizations that use proactive approaches report greater productivity, talented workers, retention of talent, diverse fan bases, satisfaction, involvement in decisions, creativity, diversity in the workplace, and lower liability.
The United States has historically displayed an uneasy relationship with immigration and diversity, but its rise to the status of a global superpower has certainly coincided with substantial immigration and diversity. Teams, sport organizations, and entire countries that proactively embrace and commit to diversity can reap the social and performance benefits of diversity. Take a proactive approach to diversity so that your organization can benefit from the diversity you have.
