Aston Business School L&T Symposium “ It takes two to tango: If you want students to harness culturally diverse syndicate groups for their learning, assure high interdependence and students value cultural differences.” Dr Yves Guillaume

Culturally diverse work groups at Aston overseas students from over 100 countries 30% of staff comes from outside the UK UK students from many different ethnic backgrounds

Agenda Thesis 1: “Cultural diversity undermines and facilitates student learning in work groups simultaneously.” Thesis 2: “If you want students to harness culturally diverse syndicate groups for their learning, assure high interdependence and students value cultural differences.”

How does cultural diversity facilitate student learning in work groups? Greater pool of task-relevant information and expertise More information elaboration More integrative complexity More creativity

How does cultural diversity undermine student learning in work groups? Social Categorization & Negative Affective-Evaluative Reactions

How can we harness cultural diversity for students’ learning?

Possible Interventions 1) Do Nothing2) Assure High Interdependence 3) Assure High Interdependence & Value Diversity

Harnessing Cultural Diversity for Student Learning

How can you assure high interdependence? 1.Set a group task 2.Reward the group, not the individual 3.Ask students to fill in a group contribution sheet 4.Ask students to set and agree on common goals

How can you assure students value cultural diversity? 5.Do the following exercise when you introduce group work: a)Tell your students that various research studies have demonstrated that culturally diverse groups typically perform better on their group assignments and experience more pleasant group processes than homogenous groups. b)Ask your students to list 5 reasons why culturally diverse groups may typically perform better on their group assignments and experience more pleasant group processes than homogenous groups. c)Midway through your course you may want to reinforce this by repeating step b) this time asking your students to draw on their own experiences.

Working in culturally diverse work group is more difficult, demanding, and time consuming. 6.Give students more time, and ask them to take more time. 7.Ask students to take 5 minutes before and after each of their group meetings to reflect upon task, process and people and to take action if necessary. Anything else you should consider?

References Brodbeck, F. C., Guillaume, Y. R. F., & Lee, N. (in press). Diversity as a multilevel construct: Predicting cross-level interaction effects on group members learning performance. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology Fay, D., & Guillaume, Y. R. F. (2007). Team diversity. In S. Clegg & J. R. Bailey (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies (pp ). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. van Dick, R., van Knippenberg, D., Hagele, S., Guillaume, Y. R. F., & Brodbeck, F. C. (2008). Group diversity and group identification: The moderating role of diversity beliefs. Human Relations, 61,