The Impact of Diversity on Creativity and Innovation

Abstract

Diversity refers to the degree to which differences exist between people, in terms of their ethnicity, gender, race, socio-cultural background, education, sexual orientation, age, religious ideologies, political ideological beliefs, physical and cognitive abilities, and so on. Diversity has been demonstrated to have an association with creativity and innovation. This study reviews the existing literature and employs qualitative research methods- semi-structured interviews- to collect data on the topic. The study’s findings reveal that is positively correlated with creativity and innovation. This research is a part of HRM dissertation help focusing on diversity and its impact on creativity and innovation within organizations.

Introduction

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, diversity is ‘the fact of many different types of things or people being included in something; a range of different things or people’ (diversity, 2021). Overall, the society comprises people who are different in terms of their race, gender, ethnicity, socio-cultural background, education, age, religious, political and other ideological beliefs, physical and cognitive abilities, among other dimensions (Baycan-Levent, 2010). Creativity, on the other hand, has been described as the creation of novel and useful ideas (Zhou and Shalley, 2003), whereas innovation refers to the production as well as implementation of ideas that can be deemed as creative (Anderson, Potocnik and Zhou, 2014). However, Klijn and Tomic (2010) regard creativity as the initial step in the innovation process. The role that diversity plays in the promotion of creativity has been widely highlighted, with multiple studies providing compelling evidence that diversity unlocks innovation and creativity (Eraydin et al., 2010).

For instance, Wang, Fussell and Cosley (2011) acknowledge that diverse teams generate more creative results compared to teams comprised of members who share a similar background. Additionally, when individuals are diverse (all different), there tends to be observed a difference in their motivations as well as behavior, skills, knowledge and abilities (Bodla et al., 2018; Chow, 2018). Diversity has also been deemed as an aspect of competitiveness among organizations, states, countries, and regions. In this regard, Fainstein (2005) argues that cities’ attainment of competitive advantage and thus, economic success, is highly reliant on their ability to enhance the diversity of their society, economic base and overall environment.

Therefore, the rationale following which this study has been conducted is the ever increasing need and pressure for creativity and innovation among organizations, which more often than not requires diversity – knowledge and expertise in many different fields/areas of practice, different physical and cognitive abilities, and so on. This has consequently resulted in multiple organizations increasingly emphasizing the need to recruit and possess a human resource that is diverse, not only as a way of improving their reputation/image and, in some cases, responding to or complying with legal requirements that oblige them to recruit some percentage of their employees from various (diverse) groups, but also achieving the creativity that arises from diversity and therefore, attain a competitive advantage (Kim, David and Liu, 2021).

This study’s key focus, therefore, is the exploration of the associations that exist between diversity and creativity and innovation. In light of its aim, this study seeks to answer the research questions that follow:

Is there a link between diversity and creativity and innovation?

How does diversity impact on and drive creativity and innovation?

Methods

To complete this study, the researcher employed the qualitative methods of research. The qualitative methods were deemed as highly appropriate to this study because they facilitated access to the perceptions people held or the meanings they attached to diversity and creativity/innovation (Hennink, Hutter and Bailey, 2020). The methods were also chosen because they promote the researcher’s objectivity (rather than subjectivity), as well as enable them to identify their various perceptions, emotions and thoughts towards the study topic (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015). In addition, the use of qualitative methods facilitates the attainment of a rich and wide range of materials and information that will contribute to a holistic and more comprehensive comprehension of the true picture of how diversity is linked to creativity and innovation (Berg, Lune and Lune, 2012).

The researcher drew on primary as well as secondary data. To generate the primary data needed, the researcher employed the qualitative data collection technique of semi-structured interviews. The reason for the use of semi-structured interviews is because they allow detailed interview questions that would produce more information that contributes to the answering of most of the research questions in comparison to other methods, hence they were appropriate for this study (Galletta, 2013). The researcher interviewed 2 participants, who were recruited on the basis of random sampling. Random sampling is a probability sampling technique that gives every individual a fair and equal possibility of being chosen to take part in the research. As such, the study is able to obtain and use an unbiased sample size that is representative of the total population. An unbiased sample size is a critical aspect of drawing conclusions that can be generalized to the larger population (Etikan and Bala, 2017).

For secondary data, the researcher conducted an extensive systematic review of literature from existing studies/research papers, journal articles and reports. The use of secondary data, alongside the primary data it collects, contributes to the study’s ability to address its research questions and to identify any research gaps that may exist in the literature.

The data collected following the conduction of the semi-structured interviews was then analyzed using the thematic content analysis technique. Thematic content analysis is an analysis method that entails reading and re-reading transcripts and texts that contain data and then coding them with the aim of identifying the themes that emerge (Braun and Clarke, 2006). The identified themes can then be used to address the research or make inferences relating to the topic being investigated by the study (Clarke and Braun, 2018). This analysis technique was selected following its suitability to this study due to its facilitation of the examination of observed data and the investigation of social phenomena (Houghton and Houghton, 2018). The researcher followed all the six steps, which include ‘becoming familiar with the data; generating initial codes; searching for themes; reviewing themes; defining themes; and writing up’, that form the thematic analysis process as identified by Braun and Clarke (2006).

Ethical Considerations

Ethics in research embody the researchers’ social responsibility and commitment to undertake only research that provides benefits, upholds the participants’ rights and promotes their safety, and to protect their participants from harm (Resnik, 2018). The researcher obtained an ethics approval from the UEL School of Psychology Ethics Committee before embarking on the study. Prospective participants were issued with information sheets that outlined details of the study as well as its significance, and those who agreed to take part in the study were given consent forms to sign. The participants were also assured of their privacy and the confidentiality of their details and responses, as well as their right and ability to stop their participation during any stage of the study without having to give an explanation.

Results and Discussion

Participant Demographics

The two participants interviewed were a female and a male, aged 45 and 42 years respectively, and were from and had different backgrounds.

The Link Between Diversity and Creativity and Innovation

Asked whether they perceived the existence of a link between diversity and creativity/innovation, both participants responded positively. Generally, it is acknowledged that diversity is strongly associated with creativity/innovation (Eraydin et al., 2010; Hampden-Turner and Chih, 2010). Multiple researchers, including Eraydin et al. (2010) and Fainstein (2005) have highlighted the relationship between the two variables and the significant role that diversity plays in driving creativity. According to Fainstein (2005), diversity, in its various forms- cultural, ethnic, spatial and social, besides attracting various forms of human capital, also encourage creativity (both artistic and cultural) as well as scientific and technological innovation. Fainstein’s (2005) assertion, as well as other studies’ findings illustrate that diversity is strongly correlated with creativity and innovation.

How Diversity Drives Creativity and Innovation

In relation to their thoughts on how diversity drove creativity and innovation, participant 1 said:

“I think the different attributes that result in our diversity as well as our diverse personal experiences influence the manner in which we perceive things, which consequently results in what we can call a diversification of our thinking. Diversified thinking results in our brains to seek solutions in distant mental nooks and cranies, which could produce creative and innovative ideas.”

This response brought out the theme of diversity and creativity/innovation at the personal/individual level. Many studies have established a link between diversity and creativity of the various individuals and countries. For example, Simonton (1997), following his seminal historiometric analyses, argues that the likely creativity levels of Japan’s later generations were highly influenced by the degree to which it was or was not open to foreign influences. Further, an analysis of macroeconomic data from the US between 2000 and 2010 reveals that the country’s economic growth was significantly stimulated by foreign-born immigrants who exhibited increasingly high levels of creativity and innovation, and despite making up just 13% of the population, accounted for a third of all the patents granted and a quarter of all the US Nobel Laureates (Godart et al., 2015). These authors thus, demonstrate a positive association between individuals’ diversity and multicultural experiences and their creativity/innovation.

According to participant 2:

“Diversity exposes us to multiple experiences which invariably stimulate our creativity levels. For example, in a culturally diverse organizational team, the team members, each of whom possesses diverse experiences such as bi- or multi-cultural exposure and cultural diversity, and diverse backgrounds and experiences, is cued out of their schematic thinking patterns, which fosters their cognitive skills following which they are able to learn, unlearn, acknowledge and incorporate multiple points of view to a problem. This, in turn, produces creative and innovative results.”

This response, on the other hand, brings out the theme of diversity-creativity/innovation link in a group or organizational context. A group can be different in terms of the ages, genders, ethnicities, socio-cultural backgrounds, expertise and physical/cognitive abilities of its members. The idea that this diversity has the potential of bringing about creativity and innovation as demonstrated by Nemeth and Kwan (1987) through their work on dissenting opinions. The authors argue that in instances where a minority (usually confederate) group expressed dissenting views, the other team members were more given to seek and find creative/innovative solutions. As explained by De Drue et al. (2011), dissenting views resulted in team members considering and being open to more unusual solutions due to the fear of obtaining the ‘wrong’ answer. These findings are supported by McLeod, Lobel and Cox (1996) whose results demonstrated that groups which are ethnically diverse tend to produced more novel and effective ideas on brainstorming tasks, and Vezzali et al. (2016) who found that asking Italian and immigrant children to work together on cooperative tasks resulted in increased levels of individual creativity.

Conclusion

The study’s findings prove its hypothesis that there exists a link between diversity and creativity/innovation. Diversity has been identified as an aspect that significantly influences creativity/innovation, with multiple researchers having been able to establish positive links between these variables. As such, individuals and organizations are increasingly seeking diversity (in their thinking and experiences, and composition, respectively) in order to enhance their creativity/innovation levels. Thus, diversity is an area of human experience that should be promoted.

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