Functional Diversity and Its Impact on Distributed Groups: An Exploratory Study

Work groups have become diverse and will continue as such in the coming years, in as much as nations and organizations themselves become more diverse. Diversity studies have focused on social categorization, such as ethnicity, gender, culture, sexuality and anything that makes two entities different from one another, or on functional diversity that involves task-related knowledge, skills, opinions and perspectives. This paper examines functional diversity in the context of virtual groups that work together in an online environment and its effect on group performance. A longitudinal experiment involving online classes was conducted and the results are reported. Our research revealed that functionally diverse groups are not good for ad-hoc tasks but perhaps good for on-going tasks. In addition, the research shows that groups become more trusting and cohesive over time. Future research areas are also discussed.