ABSTRACT
Many researchers study conflict among group members, group performance, and intergroup relations, but group composition, group structure, and the ecology of groups are neglected. In an effort to stimulate interest in group composition, R. L. Moreland and J. M. Levine offered an integrative review of relevant theory and research. Another category of advice for managing diversity effectively involves tactics designed to simulate diversity in a group without actually changing its composition. Evidence for the operation of the interactive rule in group composition effects is more rare. A general model of group composition effects should help to identify which characteristics are most important. Once an individual characteristic becomes salient, group composition effects involving that characteristic will occur. Scientific research on group composition effects can also be found, but that work often takes place in unrealistic laboratory settings that constrain the kinds of effects that occur and the efforts groups make to manage those effects.
