# Managing Groups and Teams/Team Personalities

## Achieving High Performance Through Diverse Personalities

### Introduction and Scope

Diversity in personality is like adding color to an otherwise
black-and-white television screen. High-definition, surround-sound,
plasma TV is much more enjoyable than grandpa's fuzzy, black-and-white
mono speaker TV. The scope of this chapter is to address the question of
diversity in personality and demonstrate that it is not only possible
but also recommended to achieve high performance through diversity in
personality. We discuss the ways to identify personality, contributor
personalities, and inhibitor personalities. We offer considerations and
limitations to personality profiling. We also provide links to
professional resources and consultant firms specializing in personality
diversity. Finally in this chapter we provide references and credible
sources for this material. Welcome to our wiki book chapter, enjoy.

![](oldtv.jpg "oldtv.jpg")

### Why Personality Diversity Is Important

There can be great energy harnessed from team members' different
personality traits if managed properly. Leaders must possess the skills
to build their teams around the right personalities and to manage those
personalities. We all see the world from our own unique perspective, our
own paradigm. When we're part of a team, we bring that paradigm to the
team environment. Good and bad personality traits within a team can
offset one another and build on each other and lead to synergies. Rather
than ask each team member to conform to a group norm, leaders must
recognize and utilize personality differences to ensure high
performance.

Although some argue that personality classification is simply an attempt
to \"quantify the unquantifiable,\" studying and recognizing different
personality types can help you work more effectively with your peers.
Temet Nosce Learning more
about your own personality traits can help you understand your own
strengths and weaknesses, which can help in selecting team members that
will complement you. Learning about others\' personalities can help you
develop the ability to view situations from their perspectives and
improve your own *psychological peripheral vision* (Butler, 2000), which
can be a crucial management skill to help make the team successful.

There are several characteristics of successful teams. One such
characteristic is diversity in team members. Diversity in culture,
background, age, and ethnicity are important for high performing teams,
but so too is personality diversity. All teams are made up of a diverse
range of personalities, but it is the high performing teams that
leverage their personality differences and mitigate and manage inhibitor
personalities, to achieve their common goal. Think about high performing
sports teams and there is likely to be a cast of characters with unique
personalities. Members of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s were full of
eccentric personalities. Dennis Rodman was the outspoken flamboyant
player, Scottie Pippen was the often aloof team member and Michael
Jordan was the fierce competitor. Each player was a critical piece to
the Bulls\' championship team puzzle. Each had his personality strengths
and weaknesses. Their coach and leader, Phil Jackson, harnessed their
strengths and managed their weaknesses toward a common goal. The Bulls
won six championships and Phil Jackson became known more as a Zen master
than an NBA coach. He later went on to win three more championships with
the Lakers, successfully managing two diverse superstars in Shaquille
O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. Jackson is widely recognized for his leadership
ability and, specifically, his ability to motivate athletes with strong
personalities to work as a team.

### Achieving High Performance: The Real Reason

Emotional intelligence is the ability to use emotions effectively and
many believe EI is the primary that determines high performance. The
first academic definition of emotional intelligence was published in
1990 by Peter Salovey and Jack Mayer, of Yale University and University
of New Hampshire, respectively (Freedman and Everett).

Meanwhile and since the publication - researchers and academics,
practitioners and consultants, and companies are investigating new ways
to use their understanding of emotional intelligence to elevate
professional and personal success. Why? Daniel Goleman, author of the
best-selling book *Working with Emotional Intelligence*, estimates that
IQ accounts for only 4% to 25% on how well people perform at work and
that the other 75% to 96% left unexplained can be, largely, attributed
to emotional intelligence.

Goleman states that emotional competence is the more accurate predictor
of the most successful people -- not IQ. For example, PepsiCo, conducted
a pilot project where executives selected for high emotional
intelligence competencies outperformed their colleagues, delivering a
10% in productivity, 87% decrease in executive turnover (\$4m), \$3.75
million added economic value, and over 1000% return on investment
(Freedman & Everett). Not surprisingly, Johnson and Johnson came to the
same striking conclusion: "Emotional competence differentiates
successful leaders." So what competencies or factors go into the making
of the successful leader or individual? Goleman, created the following
framework to define emotional competence:

  Personal Competence   Social Competence
  --------------------- -------------------
  Self-Awareness        Empathy
  Self-Regulation       Social Skills
  Motivation            

  : **The Emotional Competence Framework**

People with high performance have a strong combination of personal and
social competences -- in essence, high emotional intelligence. So, teams
that are high performing will have leaders and members who are a blend
of Goleman's emotional competencies.

## How to Identify Different Personalities

There are many ways to identify different personalities: look, listen,
smell, touch, taste, and perceive. Obviously, some of these methods
might not be the most appropriate or useful, especially in the
workplace.

Many different personalities tests are available to test and identify
different personalities. Among these personality tests are the Big 5,
Myers-Briggs, and the Color Code system. We choose to focus on the Big 5
since it is highly regarded in business and academic communities.
<http://www.centacs.com/quickstart.htm#Background>

![](smallBig5.jpg "smallBig5.jpg")The Big 5 focuses on five personality
factors which help individuals understand themselves and their
teammates. The following is a very brief summary:

Need for Stability Factor : Refers to the degree to which a person responds to stress.

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Extraversion Factor : Refers to the degree to which a person can tolerate sensory stimulation from people and situations.

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Originality Factor : Refers to the degree to which we are open to new experiences/new ways of doing things.

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Accommodation Factor : Refers to the degree to which we defer to others.

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Consolidation Factor : Refers to the degree to which we push toward goals at work.

### Take the Big Five Test

Here are a couple websites that offer the Big 5 personality test free of
charge.

<http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/>

## Contributor Personalities

While there are many personalities that inhibit a team\'s performance,
there are others that help the team accomplish goals, tasks, and
objectives. Some personalities contribute to a team culture that
facilitates high performance and accomplishment. Other personalities
simply keep things in check and under control. Having this type of
diversity in a team\'s makeup of personalities can play a vital role in
the team\'s success.

### Types of Constructive Personalities

There are many personality types that are very constructive and which
help in becoming a high-performing team. A few of them are listed here:

Silent Contributor : A person with this personality type is someone who gets the job done without saying much. They silently complete the tasks that are assigned to them, and very rarely create conflict. One must take care to balance this type of team member with someone who is not afraid to speak up, however, so that necessary communications happen for the team to progress.

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Devil\'s Advocate : This type of person is someone who likes to challenge ideas and processes. They act as an internal \"check\" on what you are doing and the processes you use. Although this person can generate conflict, oftentimes it is healthy conflict that brings ideas to light or helps to challenge biases.

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Facilitator : People who like to keep structure to meetings, organize documentation, and make sure things run smoothly are often referred to as \"facilitators.\" These people facilitate the operation of a team by making sure everything goes according to plan, on schedule, and in order. People with this type of personality help to reduce the probability that chaos will ensue from random team members trying to accomplish their distinct agendas simultaneously. This is a \"control\" member of the team.

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Leader : Some people are really good a leading a team to success. This type of person is not afraid to take charge, delegate assignments, enforce accountability, encourage others, and facilitate success. Some are natural born leaders, others simply learn by doing.

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Follower : A dutiful worker. Some people are really good at following directions and assignments, and they work very hard to get their work done on time. This type of person more suited to this type of role because they know how to work hard and are okay with following instructions. Having the bulk of the work taken care of by the \"followers\" allows the other roles within the team to take care of their functions.

### Some Can, Some Can\'t, Some Won\'t

The truth is that some people are good at team collaboration, some
aren\'t, and others are unwilling.

Some people just seem to have the \"gift\" of working with and leading a
team and ensuring its success. These are hard-working people with a mind
for collaboration and putting the success of the team above their own
ego. This type of person will help others achieve their goals by working
with them to resolve frustrations, remove impediments, and create an
atmosphere of mutual satisfaction. This type of team player encourages
the rest of the team to work collaboratively towards the team goals.

Others may not have collaborative personality traits within them.
Although their intentions might be good, they may not see eye-to-eye
with team members on processes, methods or goals. Oftentimes this type
of person will be confrontational and impatient. Even though they would
like the team to succeed, sometimes their own work ethic or personality
gets in the way. This type of person can learn to work better within a
team if they recognize their impact on others and are willing to make
changes to their style.

Some people simply won\'t work with a team. This type of person thinks
they can get the job done faster, easier or better than the team could,
and therefore simply will not cooperate. This type of person must get
past their own ego if they are to work successfully in a team, and this
type of change must start from within.

## Inhibitor Personalities

No matter where a person works, difficult personalities present problems
and challenges in the workplace. These inhibitor personalities cause a
great deal of stress and are sometimes complex to address. The
temptation is to avoid people with personalities that inhibit logical
workflow as it takes time, skill and effort to deal with them.
Personality conflicts are felt by all managers at all levels, but most
avoid dealing directly with them. A study of 250 senior professionals
conducted in the United Kingdom in 2005 noted that half of those
surveyed encountered difficult people on a daily basis (Berry 2005).
Despite this finding, the study noted that only 15% of managers actually
confronted the inhibiting behavior. 55% tried to help by discussing the
problems and 30% just ignored or put up with the difficult personality.
These findings are largely due to the lack of knowledge about how to
deal with inhibitor personalities and the inability to confront the
stresses involved.

### Types of Difficult Personalities

To better understand the types of personalities that can be disruptive
in the work environment, it is necessary to explain the types of
personalities that inhibit teams in the workplace so that an approach
can be applied to deal with each type. There are four basic categories
of personalities that can be found in the workplace: aggressive,
deceptive, passive and destructive.

Aggressive : People showing these personalities demonstrate hostile and forceful behavior toward others. People exhibiting aggressive behavior charge forward in an attacking and forceful way to display the frustration or anger they feel but cannot resolve. These people need to be heard and have a need to vent while at the same time needing people to listen to them. Aggressive personalities include perfectionists, dictators, hostile-aggressives, attackers, egotists, bullies and criticizers who always say no to any request.

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Deceptive : People who engage in deceptive behavior aren't comfortable with direct confrontation and prefer to attack from a distance from behind some kind of protection. People with this type of personality are still vocal and tend to either complain quite a bit without direct attacks or compensate for their frustration and dissatisfaction by being everything from sneaky to over-agreeable. These types of personalities include snipers who attack from a distance and always seem to have hidden agendas; overtly nice people who agree with everything until they are overwhelmed; "brownnosers" who have an unnatural attachment to those in charge as a way to get ahead; those who seem unresponsive to anything; and those who spread rumors to increase their own self esteem.

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Passive : People who are meek in the workplace present problems as well. Passive personalities are negative, but portray themselves as victims, always ready to dismiss any solution presented to them. Passive personality types include martyrs, passive-aggressives, moody people, crybabies, self-castigators, worriers, resisters, silent types and those who say "it's not my job".

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Destructive : People who exhibit destructive behaviors can be explosive and unpredictable. Failure to understand this personality type can lead to extreme problems in the workplace that can create an unsafe work environment. This type of inhibitor personality includes people who are sociopathic and those who are substance abusers.

#### Aggressive Personalities

The aggressive personality type is forceful in what they want and demand
that their issues be dealt with right away. These aggressive inhibitors
include:

Perfectionists : Every detail must be perfect or the perfectionist becomes negative. They are never satisfied with their own work and are own worst critic. They have unrealistic standards and even work that is praised by other workers as the highest quality work is not acceptable to the perfectionist. They cannot accept any kind of criticism and will focus on anything not perfect, even if that part is a tiny part of the overall work done. A perfectionist manager tends to be a micromanager.

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Dictators : A person with this personality will make a great deal of demands on everyone and will try to tell them how to do their jobs. They will walk all over the more passive personality types because they will let the dictator roll over them. Dictators are often angry and hostile and have a strong need to control. For the dictator, it is "my way or the highway".

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Hostile-aggressives : People exhibiting this personality are pushy and demanding, constantly argumentative and can be hostile and abusive. They have a need to stir things up and thrive on the chaos they cause. (Aldrich 2002). These employees don't care whether the reaction they get is positive or negative as they gain positive self-recognition regardless of the outcome.

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Attackers : These people demonstrate emotion-based hostility and aggressive that they are unable to control. These attacks are not personal to the person being attacked, the attacker is just looking for someone to vent the frustration and anger for which he or she can't find an outlet. Attackers are genuinely upset and need someone to listen to their pain.

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Egotists : These are attackers who have a superior attitude and think they know it all. They charge forward with their disapproval of anything that they as experts feel is not going the way it should. Egotists are arrogant and will disagree with most everything that is said because they like to be right. They always find problems, not opportunities. They often criticize others to make themselves feel better.

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Bullies : The bully uses threats and intimidation to undermine others. Bullies attempt to undo another person as part of their plan to retain popularity and power. Bullies have an inflated view of themselves and is threatened by someone who is likeable, well qualified or attractive. (Guy 2001). They will humiliate, destroy, discredit or intimidate another person to make themselves look better.

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Criticizers : A criticizer will strike down anything this is new, creative or different. His or her mission is to disagree with anything that is said (Topchik 2006). She will jump on any mistake and disagree with it with negative feedback. A manager who is a criticizer exhibits it by always saying no to all requests.

#### Deceptive Personalities

The person with a deceptive personality type will not directly confront
as in the case of the aggressive type. This personality will instead
work behind the scenes or from a distance to disrupt the workplace or
gain favor. These deceptive inhibitors include:

Snipers : They use pointed jabs, humor and verbal sparing to put others down, usually from a distance and behind the scenes. These people take potshots at others, use sarcasm as a weapon, lurk on conference calls to silently gather information, talk behind other people's backs and go to great lengths to make their behind the scenes efforts untraceable back to them. These people will not discuss their opinions in a public forum.

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Over-agreeables : These are "yes" people who have a powerful desire to be liked and appreciated. They never say no to anything and are far too uncomfortable to voice an opposing opinion. They are often overwhelmed with too many projects since they never say no to anything and are always positive in approach. These people can be problematic in the workplace when they agree with one person's approach and then also agree with an opposing position from someone else.

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Brownnosers : Also known as bootlickers, people with this personality type believe that the shortest way to the top is on the coattails of the boss. They will exhibit a complete devotion and dedication to those in charge and will not ever tell the truth about their tactics or any of the boss' activities. They live in a constant self-reinforcing denial state that is perpetuated by the sense of importance bosses get from them.

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Unresponsives : These people are very hard to understand and to draw out because they don't provide enough to work with. They tend to be uncommitted to anything with work as the lowest priority in their lives. They waste time, spent a lot of time on personal matters and try to get by doing as little as possible.

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Rumormongers : This is one of the more difficult deceptive personalities in that much of their negativity is spread through ideas and statements that are not true, but are hard to trace back to the source. This person feels a great sense of importance when the rumors this person circulates force strong reactions from others. Rumormongers tend to be very specific about what rumors they spread (examples include spreading rumors around senior managers, job cuts, salaries, competition and dating in the workplace), which maximizes the impact and increases their sense of self worth.

#### Passive Personalities

These are people with meek personalities and are often self-deprecating
to a fault. They tend to be moody and sensitive people who worry
greatly, resist change, complain and need constant encouragement. This
personality type includes the following:

Martyrs : This person is the one who comes in early, stays late, seems to not have a life outside of work and will do anything asked of them. While doing this, they will also complain about workload, other employees, clients, managers and everything else in between. The martyr always feels like her efforts go unappreciated. They usually act defeated and powerless. The martyr's trademark statement is "I have given up everything for this company and nobody cares" (Topchik 2006).

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Passive-aggressives : People with this personality style lack assertiveness and feel out of control. To remedy this, they find satisfaction in controlling another person's life (Guy 2001). They are very jealous and resentful and have so little belief in themselves that they can't compete with another person without bringing them down. Anyone that this person feels threatened by is subject to their anger, sabotage, deliberate procrastination and other tricks. They often have good excuses for this type of behavior that clouds manager attempts to correct the issue.

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Crybabies : People who behave like children when they don't get their way. They withdraw, cry or go on a tirade. They then act as if they are powerless in the same way martyrs do and usually believe everything that happens to them is bad (Manning 2004).

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Self-castigators : This personality shows itself in the form of constant self putdowns. This person finds fault with everything he does, from work performance to salary to appearance to economic status to everything that defines a person's self concept. Even if the person is performing well on the job, he will not see it that way himself. This person always takes the blame when something goes wrong, further enhancing negative feelings about personal self worth.

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Worriers : These people walk on eggshells and are very sensitive to any negative comment. They usually complain about being too stressed and are expecting the ceiling to fall down on them at any moment. She is unhappy with the way things are and is constantly pessimistic both at work and outside of it.

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Resisters : Any kind of change upsets the resistor no matter how small. This person is only comfortable with the status quo and will resist any attempts to introduce new ideas and reorganizations. If the change is threatening enough, the resisters will try to sabotage it or spread negative rumors about the change.

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Silent types : These people keep to themselves and don't express any feelings or thoughts on any subject. They work completely alone and even when placed on a team, will contribute nothing to the team in the form of active participation.

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"It's not my job"-ers : These are very negative people who will reject any task that is outside of their perceived job responsibilities no matter how small the task may be. They usually do this as retribution for a slight that someone in the organization has put upon them.

#### Destructive Personalities

These include people who have significant problems outside of work that
impact themselves and others at work. They include:

Sociopaths : These are people who lead double lives. Their work lives and personal lives couldn't be more different. These are the people who portray themselves as supportive and charming, but in reality are cold and ruthless. They act on their impulses without regard for the consequences on others. Managers who do not detect that words do not match actions invite severely destructive consequences (Guy 2001)

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Substance Abusers : People with alcohol or drug abuse problems who try to mask their abuse at work. They will sometimes work at a very high level and then drop off dramatically. Absenteeism followed by plausible excuses are part of a repeating pattern that is destructive to the person and to co-workers.

### Addressing Inhibitor Personalities

In dealing with all inhibitor personalities, the core emotional
competency to be developed, first, is self-awareness: recognizing one's
emotions and their effects. This should be common sense; after all, you
must be self-aware of the problem before the problem can be addressed.
For instance, if people are lacking -- social competence - in listening
openly and sending convincing messages then they would be inept at
leading and facilitating others towards a common goal. If they lack
self-confidence - personal competence - then it would be difficult to
establish respect with others. When dealing with the various personality
inhibitors, the first step in addressing the issue it to identify the
root cause of the problem itself.

Adapted from Goleman's framework, we created the "Emotional Competency
Framework" table for leaders on how to address personalities that
prohibit teams from reaching their full potential -- the inhibitor
personalities.

In our table below, we made recommendations on how to address the four
inhibitor personality types: aggressive, deceptive, passive, and
destructive. For example, to address the aggressive personality type we
would encourage the aggressor to develop empathy and social skills;
developing an understanding of others and sensing other's feelings and
perspectives would help them empathize and become less aggressive;
developing collaboration and cooperation skills would help them work
amiably with others towards a shared, clear and elevating without using
aggressive, emotionally charged, tactics.

#### Emotional Competency Framework

  `<big>`{=html}Inhibitor`</big>`{=html}   `<big>`{=html}Emotional competencies to be developed`</big>`{=html}
  ---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Aggressive                               
                                           Self-Awareness
  Perfectionists                           \|Develop emotional awareness, recognize that their emotions and their negative effects of being too aggressive
  Dictators                                Self-Regulation
  Hostile-aggressives                      Develop self-control by keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check
  Attackers                                Develop innovation and encourage the individual to being comfortable with novel ideas, approaches and new information
  Egotists                                 Empathy
  Bullies                                  \|Develop understanding others, sensing other's feelings and perspectives, and taking an active interest in their concerns
  Criticizers                              Social Skills
                                           Develop collaboration and cooperation, working with others toward shared, clear and elevating goals
                                           Develop influence, wielding effective tactics for persuasion
                                           Develop conflict management, negotiating and resolving disagreements
  Deceptive                                
                                           Self-Awareness
  Snipers                                  Develop emotional awareness, recognize that their emotions and their negative effects of being deceptive
  Over-Agreeables                          Self-Regulation
  Brownnosers                              Develop trustworthiness, maintaining standards of honesty and integrity
  Unresponsives                            Social Skills
  Rumormongers                             Develop building bonds, nurturing instrumental relationships
                                           Develop collaboration and cooperation, working with others toward shared, clear and elevating goals
  Passive                                  
                                           Self-Awareness
  Martyrs                                  Develop emotional awareness, recognize that their emotions and their negative effects of being passive
  Passive-aggressives                      Develop self-confidence, a strong sense of one's self-worth and capabilities
  Crybabies                                Self Regulation
  Self-castigators                         Develop conscientiousness, taking responsibility for personal performance
  Worriers                                 Motivation
  Resisters                                Develop achievement drive, striving to improve or meet a standard of excellence
  Silent Types                             Develop optimism, persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks
  "It's Not My Job"-ers                    Social Skills
                                           Develop influence, wielding effective tactics for persuasion
                                           Develop team capabilities, creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals
  Destructive                              
                                           Self-Awareness
  Sociopaths                               Develop emotional awareness, recognize that their emotions and their negative effects of being destructive
  Substance abusers                        Develop self-confidence, a strong sense of one's self-worth and capabilities
                                           Self Regulation
                                           Develop self-control, keeping disruptive impulses in check
                                           Develop conscientiousness, taking responsibility for personal actions
                                           Motivation
                                           Develop optimism, persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks

*Goleman's "The Emotional Competence Framework" was adapted to this
framework*

## Personality Profiling Considerations

Personality profiling can be a very useful tool in understanding your
teammate's communication styles, motivations and reward preferences. It
can help you understand better how to relate to people and work with
them. However, psychologists stress that personality type doesn\'t
explain everything about us and that people with the same personality
type often behave differently.
1

Experts also agree that people cannot simply trade one personality type
for another --- that personality types are like left- or
right-handedness --- most people are born preferring one hand.
Similarly, every person is born with a personality type, which means
that people react differently to different stimuli. For example, an
introverted person may find relaxation through focusing on memories,
thoughts or feelings, while an extroverted personality concentrates on
the outer world. No personality type is inherently better than another,
although certain personality types work better together and some are
more suited to certain roles on the team.

**Profiling and Stereotyping**

Although personality profiling is popular, it can prove to be a
stumbling block if not used carefully because personality profiling
makes use of stereotypes, which is often used improperly and limits
one's ability to see things clearly.

Walter Lippmann<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lippmann>, an
influential American writer, journalist and political commentator, once
said "For the most part we do not first see, and then define; we define
first, and then we see."

Lippman's candid statement reminds us about how easy it is to assign
someone to a certain personality type (defining them) without having all
the facts. Stereotypes and personality profiling can make us mentally
lazy. As Samuel Ichiye
Hayakawa<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._I._Hayakawa>, an academic and
former United States Senator from California, explained that the danger
of stereotypes "lies not in their existence, but in the fact that they
become for all people some of the time, and for some people all the
time, substitutes for observation."

**Drawbacks and Cautions**

Personality profiling can be a very useful tool in helping people better
understand themselves and the members of their teams. However, it can be
detrimental if not used with caution. Following are three areas that
could sustain damage: 1.) Oneself; 2.) Other team members; 3.) The
organization as a whole.

**Oneself**

When people determine that they are a certain personality type (i.e.
"I'm a Blue") it gives them a useful set of tools to better understand
themselves. However, it may be limiting as well. They might begin to
think that they are not capable or suited to certain tasks because their
personality profile says they are not. They may use the personality
profile as a crutch which keeps them from growing in new areas or
interacting in meaningful ways with others.

**Others**

In addition, when people immediately use personality profiling to judge
the members of their team, they often make false assumptions that they
understand their team members, when if fact they do not. While it is
true that profiling helps individuals make quick judgments that can be
useful in certain circumstances (i.e. the short-lived team with a
short-term goal), people often do not go beyond those initial judgments
to understand the motivations, work styles and personality temperaments
of the co-workers.

**Organization**

Personality profiling is often used in the workplace as a method for
screening and making decisions on whom to hire. Some HR professionals
embrace the technique, while others do not. Although personality testing
may be useful, companies need to be aware of the risks involved in using
them to predict future employee behavior on the job. They may be
exposing themselves to lawsuits or other legal problems if used
improperly.

## Deep- and surface-level diversity

By focusing on personality diversity, as opposed to demographic
diversity, businesses may begin to study what David A. Harrison terms
\"deep-level diversity\" (Harrison et al, 1998). Deep-level diversity
consists of the attitudes, beliefs, values and commitment to the
organization that different individuals in a group might have. This is
in contrast to the traditional method of expressing diversity through
heterogeneity in categories such as race, gender, or age, or what can
called \"surface-level diversity.\" For example, the current thinking in
deep-level diversity would account for the phenomenon that a male,
Indian, engineer from the Punjab might be arguing alongside a younger
female marketer from the midwest US to support a similar project
approach. While the two are certainly demographically different, they
may hold very similar values about work, economy, and share similar
commitments to the organization. By exploring current information on
deep-level diversity, not just surface-level diversity, organizations
may leverage important performance benefits and avoid costly pitfalls.

It remains unclear if deep-level diversity characteristics can be
discerned from personality profiling assessments. It is unlikely to
match up exactly with the current discussion of personality types. What
studies do show, however, is that the effects of surface-level
differences diminish over time as the group works together and the
importance of the effects from deep-level diversity in the group
increases markedly. According to the study, \"Beyond Relational
Demography: Time and the Effects of Surface- and Deep-level Diversity on
Work Group Cohesion,\" the more work group members \"continue to
interact with one another, dissimilarity in the typically studied
surface level dimensions such as sex and age become less important than
deep level attitudinal dissimilarity in, for instance, job
satisfaction\" (Harrison et al, 1998) The authors state that the reason
for this is that time is required for high-quality informational
interactions among group members, in which they learn about each
other\'s deep-level characteristics, and subsequently develop more
meaningful, richly-functional, relationships. Further, Harrison also
conducted a study that found \"increasing levels of collaboration . . .
can reduce the impact race, gender, or age differences on team
performance\" and that \"as team members continue to work together over
time, personality and value differences surface more clearly\" (2002).

### Recommendations

Harrison\'s research suggests that groups seek deep-level diversity in
knowledge, skills, and abilities but minimize diversity in job-related
beliefs, attitudes, and values. This can lead to what he calls
\"especially effective teams\" (2002). However, he cautions that in
order to be successful, it is important that such groups are rewarded
for collaboration and \"that member\'s individual outcomes depend more
on team performance than their own\" (2002).

According to *FastCompany*, this type of deep-level diversity also
corresponds to a higher ROI, service diversification, and sales growth,
as well as more internal communication and an increase in assets (Davies
2004).

However, two elements of previous surface-level diversity problems seem
to carry over even into contexts of deep-level diversity: first,
increased diversity on both levels is still associated with an increase
in turnover and integration and coordination problems; second, it still
appears that in the supervisor/subordinate relationship, subordinates
with the same gender as their superiors receive higher performance
evaluations (Davies 2004).

## Conclusion

Insights into how personality diversity affects the work group have
increased as the study of personality types, profiles, emotional IQ, and
deep-level attitudes has grown. Instead of thinking of diversity as
simply demographic differences, group managers will need to research,
experiment, and analyze the ways in which all of these aspects not only
affect the group, but how they can be integrated into a cohesive
approach that corresponds to group cohesiveness and successful
performance.

## Professional Resources

The following list includes links to a few consulting firms specializing
in personalities:

<http://www.piworldwide.com>

<http://www.personality-insights.com/>

<http://www.personalitypathways.com/tpn.html>

<http://www.hrobjective.com/>

<http://www.lrandc.com/>

<http://www.caliperonline.com/solutions/hiring.shtml>

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