ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a set of topics that cut across many of those addressed previously. It is concerned with the characteristics of group members, and in particular with how the distribution of member characteristics impacts group performance. The central question to be tackled is whether a group’s performance is helped or hindered by diversity among its members. Is a group more effective when all of its members are similar to one another, or is there value in variety? As will be seen, this is not a simple question to answer. In this chapter, I synthesize the main themes in the literature concerned with diversity and performance in small groups and suggest how diversity among members is apt to factor into the search for synergy. I also introduce, by means of a detailed example given in the last section of the chapter, a computational approach to modeling the impact of certain types of diversity on group performance. This approach is well suited for capturing the complex dynamics of group interaction and, thereby, the performance gains those interactions may sometimes yield.
