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Does diversity increase productivity?

January 9, 2008

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One of the arguments for diversity-based hiring is that a more diverse workforce is more productive. Is that true?

Scott E. Page, a professor of complex systems, political science and economics and the University of Michigan argues that it does. He uses mathematical models and case studies to support the claims, which themselves are pretty straight forward.

Here's a quote from a recent interview in the New York Times:

The problems we face in the world are very complicated. Any one of us can get stuck. if we're in an organization where everyone thinks in the same way, everyone will get stuck in the same place.

But if we have people with diverse tools, they'll get stuck in different places. One person can do their best, and then someone else can come in and improve on it.

Of course, this isn't exactly a new idea. But ideas are a dime a dozen. What Page has are data.

On a related topic, Richard Hackman of Harvard University, who also studies the productivity of work teams, is now arguing that panels of experts can be less productive due to their expertise. He specifically argues that blue-ribbon commissions like the 9/11 Commission are often unproductive because, although they are filled with people with a great deal of expertise, such panels are often very inefficient at using that expertise.

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Comments

About the meaning of diversity in evolution

January 10, 2008 by kjellstrom, 1 year 43 weeks ago
Comment id: 26890

I believe in diversity for mathematical reasons. Diversity is equivalent to disorder and average information, which is connected to mean fitness in a duality by the theorems of Gaussian adaptation.

For instance, suppose that a Gaussian distributed pool of phenotypes is centred in a region of acceptability. Then, if the pool is slightly moved in some direction, the mean fitness will decrease but may be recovered if the diversity is decreased, meaning that both mean fitness and diversity are simultaneously maximal.

I don’t know anything about the models referenced, but it may be a connection to evolution here, because we may imagine that more diversity in a group gives rise to a higher “mutation rate”, such that more diverse ideas are being produced, where each idea has a probability of survival. As I see it, a very homogeneous group with low diversity has a low mutation rate and is inefficient. A very high diversity and mutation rate will lead to a chaotic and inefficient process. Between those extremes we may find a most economic compromise.

According to a certain theorem of efficiency (based on information theory), A certain balance between diversity and mean fitness, P, (average probability of survival of ideas) should be chosen such that P is about 1/e = 0.37. See
Kjellström, G. On the Efficiency of Gaussian Adaptation. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, vol. 71, no. 3, Dec. 1991.

Similar results have been obtained by
Gaines, Brian R. Knowledge Management in Societies of Intelligent Adaptive Agents. Journal of intelligent Information systems 9, 277-298 (1997).
and
Taxén, L. A Framework for the Coordination of Complex Systems’ Development. Institute of Technology, Linköping University, 2003.

Gkm



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