Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Do Faultlines Hurt Or Help? Exploring Distance, Identity, Task Conflict, And Individual Performance In Diverse Groups, Katerina Bezrukova, Karen A. Jehn, Elaine Zanutto, Sherry M.B. Thatcher

Psychology

We introduce the concept of faultline distance that reflects the extent to which subgroups formed by faultlines diverge as a result of accumulated differences across them (e.g., two members of age 20 are closer in age to two members of an opposing faultline of age 25 than of two members of age 50). We further extend faultline theory by showing how different faultline bases (information-based and social category faultlines) have differential effects on outcomes. Using a sample of 76 workgroups from a Fortune 500 information processing company, we examine the relationships between group faultlines, shared identity, work-related conflict, and multiple …