Abstract
Managing people from different backgrounds has brought great benefits to work organizations. However, previous research has shown that diversity may have negative effects on performance because of diversity “faultlines”, hypothetical dividing lines that may split a group into subgroups. We conducted an empirical study on faultlines for the first time in Japan to investigate the present status of faultlines and to assess the degree to which workers perceive that (certain) attributes (e.g. nationality, ethnicity, age, personality, attitude) may have an impact on the emergence of faultlines in Japanese work organizations. It has been shown that task-related attributes such as specialty and ability/knowledge are great factors affecting faultlines, and that every participant perceives faultlines based on such attributes as specialty, personality, and attitude.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Jackson, S.E., Joshi, A., Erhardt, N.L.: Recent research on team and organizational diversity: SWOT analysis and implications. J. Manage. 29, 801–830 (2003)
Jehn, K.A., Northcraft, G.B., Neale, M.A.: Why differences make a difference: a field study of diversity, conflict and performance in workgroups. Adm. Sci. Q. 44(4), 741–763 (1999)
Joshi, A., Jackson, S.E.: Managing workforce diversity to enhance cooperation in organizations. In: West, M.A., Tjosvold, D., Smith, K.G. (eds.) International Handbook of Organizational Teamwork and Cooperative Working, pp. 277–296. Wiley, Hoboken (2003)
Lau, D.C., Murnighan, J.K.: Demographic diversity and faultlines: the compositional dynamics of organizational groups. Acad. Manag. Rev. 23, 325–340 (1998)
Lau, D.C., Murnighan, J.K.: Interactions within groups and subgroups: the effects of demographic faultlines. Acad. Manage. J. 48, 645–659 (2005)
Molleman, E.: Diversity in demographic characteristics, abilities and personality traits: do faultlines affect team functioning? Group Decis. Negot. 14, 173–193 (2005)
Taniguchi, M.: Daibashiti Manejimento no Kenkyu: Tayoseiwo Ikasu Soshiki (Diversity Management: Organizational Utilization of Diversity). Hakutoshobo, Tokyo (2005) (in Japanese)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Iwaasa, T., Shoji, N., Mizuno, M. (2017). A Study of the Current Status of Diversity Faultlines in Japanese Work Organizations. In: Kantola, J., Barath, T., Nazir, S., Andre, T. (eds) Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 498. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42070-7_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42070-7_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42069-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42070-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)