Understanding Diversity

Daan van Knippenberg is Professor of Organizational Behavior at RSM Erasmus University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. His research interests include work group performance, especially work group diversity and group decision making, leadership, in particular the roles of self and identity, and of emotions, and social identity processes in organizations. In his inaugural address he argues that the effects of work group diversity on group performance should be understood in terms of two processes that have independent and interactive effects: elaboration of task-relevant information and social categorization. He outlines how an integrative model of these processes may explain inconsistent findings in diversity research and provide clear directions for the management of diverse groups. In this respect, he advocates in particular attention for group members’ understanding of work group diversity. Daan van Knippenberg is co-founder of the Erasmus Centre for Leadership Studies, and Associate Editor of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and of Journal of Organizational Behavior. His research is published in such academic outlets as Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Annual Review of Psychology.