Diversity can be good and bad for team performance. Critically discuss this statement using relevant theories, empirical evidence and examples.

The Role of Diversity in Team Performance
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The Role of Diversity in Team Performance
Diversity has become an integral element in most organizations supposedly because of the factors such as globalization and also, the acknowledgment of the potential benefits such a workforce could bring to the company. Diversity comes in various forms, which could be either inherent or acquired. Inherent diversity includes elements of gender and race while acquired diversity encapsulates the culture and those with major experience background. A related study of 506 companies conducted in 2009 focusing on racial or gender diversity demonstrated exceptional business success apparent in rising sales revenues, increasing customer base, and higher profits (Rock, Grant, & Grey, 2016, p.22). A similar case is made of an experiment involving about 20,000 firms in 91 states around the world. Diversity is praised in the present business environment for its role in enhancing performance. On the other hand, it can be a source of conflict because of the differing personalities. Diversity promotes information sharing, innovation, competitive advantage, and a better working environment that values women resulting in better organizational performance.
Strengths of a Diverse Workplace and Team Performance
Informational Diversity and Innovation
As mentioned earlier, diversity comes in various dimensions and this factor relates to the differing levels of education and experience in the team. The arising difference among individuals creates informational discrepancies implying that people can throw a plethora of ideas towards attaining a common course. In this regard, employees can achieve related goals whether those set for their specific group or ones that relate to the entire organization. Extraordinary and creative tasks such as cracking new markets or product development are events that can bring forth the essence of diversity among employees because they establish better performance among them. Diversity from this aspect orchestrates a direct performance effect.
Researchers from Karen Jehn of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and the University of Illinois concluded that informational diversity was instrumental in stirring constructive conflict. However, there were profound advantages in the resulting innovation and fresh ideas. Cognitive diversity theory relates to the richness but subtle differences in members’ expertise, experiences, and perspectives. These individuals have unique cognitive attributes that are bound to add to the growing level of information in the immediate circles. Such ideas and opinions could be rooted in the peoples’ backgrounds amplifying the strength of the final decision. The bottom line is that diversity is vital for informational exchange leading to better performance.
Competitive Advantage
Diversity can also be perceived as a resource. Penrose advanced the resource-based theory where she asserted that people can perceive a firm as a bundle of resources and it is the heterogeneity of resources that is crucial to providing each firm its unique character (Ayega & Muathe, 2018, p.10). In this regard, the focus shifts to the firm's assets and more precisely, those that are working in the organization. These are the individuals that are considered vital if the business is to attain a sustainable competitive advantage. People are unique resources that complement data, information, firm properties, organizational procedures, and capacities that empower the firm’s objective of catching and actualizing systems that propel its productivity as well as adequacy. This resource-based view guarantees the need to analyze specific highlights that eventually, orchestrate the emergence of legitimate preferred standpoints.
In most circumstances, an organization that approaches diversity strategically aims to seize the possible benefits that tag along. Initiating competitive advantage implies that firms in that industry are yet to integrate this phenomenon leading to a unique standpoint in the firm. On the other hand, the firm at the center of focus could also be too large and leading in its sector to make this diversity a possibility (Lockett & Wild, 2014, p.372). In either case, diversity and more so, cultural diversity will serve the firm better in the marketplace. In this regard, firms that elicit a greater concern for minorities are much more likely to make more sales in those communities. Even better, it strengthens their brand publicity.
Harmonious Working Environment and Opportunities
Ethnicity is a fundam...