Diversity in workgroups and its impact on innovation.

Abstract

Diversity in work groups is a subject that has been discussed by several researchers over the years. Due to changes in the workforce demography – migration, aging population, an equal proportion of women and men in the population, and others- the steady increasing need of organizations for globalization and alliances, the importance of knowing the impact of diversity on innovation becomes more and more important (Jackson,1995). The focus of this paper lies on diversity in age, gender, education and knowledge within workgroups and their impact on innovation. Innovation refers here to the quality of the performance and not the quantity. These dimensions of diversity are mainly represented in most organizations. It is therefore interesting to investigate them in the context of innovation, in order to straighten out prejudices such as women being less interested in innovation or younger employees being more creative than older ones. Previous investigations revealed that age diversity within workgroups has a negative impact on innovation contrary to gender diversity and diversity in education and knowledge. This paper sought to portray these findings by first, analyzing the literature of several researchers. Second, the findings of an empirical study on the effects of multidisciplinary work teams within the context of innovation contests were examined. These contests were arranged by an organization in 2014, 2015, and 2016.