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  • Article
  • Journal of Public Economics

Diversity and Team Performance in a Kenyan Organization

By: Benjamin Marx, Vincent Pons and Tavneet Suri
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Abstract

We present the results from a field experiment on team diversity. Individuals working as door-to-door canvassers for a non-profit organization were randomly assigned a teammate, a supervisor, and a list of individuals to canvass. This created random variation within teams in the degree of horizontal diversity (between teammates), vertical diversity (between teammates and their supervisor), and external diversity (between teams and the individuals they canvassed). We observe team-level measures of performance and find that horizontal ethnic diversity decreases performance, while vertical diversity often improves performance, and external diversity has no effect. The data on time use suggests that horizontally homogeneous teams organized tasks in a more efficient way, while vertically homogeneous teams exerted lower effort.

Keywords

Ethnic Diversity; Organizational Behavior; Labor Management; Groups and Teams; Diversity; Performance

Citation

Marx, Benjamin, Vincent Pons, and Tavneet Suri. "Diversity and Team Performance in a Kenyan Organization." Art. 104332. Journal of Public Economics 197 (May 2021).
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About The Author

Vincent Pons

Business, Government and the International Economy
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  • How Do Campaigns Shape Vote Choice? Multi-Country Evidence from 62 Elections and 56 TV Debates By: Caroline Le Pennec and Vincent Pons
  • The Creation and Fissuring of Consensus By: Vincent Pons
  • The Trouble with TCE By: Vincent Pons and Rafael Di Tella
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