When intragroup conflict is a good thing: Team diversity and use of force by police

Abstract

Public administration scholars, and those in other fields such as business management and social psychology, have long been interested in the effects of workforce diversity on performance. Results thus far are decidedly mixed, in large part because different research traditions operate at different levels of organization and test different performance measures. Drawing from the broader literature on diversity outside public administration, we focus specifically on work team, as the unit of analysis, in this article. We argue that intragroup conflict on a diverse team is potentially beneficial when lower levels of trust and cohesion among group members reduce counterproductive work behavior and thus improve performance. We test this assertation in an analysis of police use of force on citizens in Dallas, TX, between 2013 and 2020. Findings show that demographically diverse teams reduce the use of force against citizens. The largest effects are found in response groups that include variation on both race/ethnicity and gender. We conclude with a discussion of these results and the implications for research on diversity and social equity. Limitations are also discussed.

Notes

1 Note that though work in this field is often known as “organizational diversity,” past research has almost exclusively operated at the work group level (Van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007).

2 It is important to note literature which suggests that status diversity may limit the positive impact of demographic diversity and representation (Groeneveld & Meier, 2022). However, in the case of negative outcomes such as lack of trust, any other sources of diversity present in a team (such as status) should only compound the effect of demographics.

3 See Tennessee v. Garner 1985.

4 See more information at https://dallaspolice.net/abouts/dpdhistory

5 See more information at https://dallaspolice.net/reports/Pages/response-resistance.aspx

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jill Nicholson-Crotty

Jill Nicholson-Crotty is a Professor of Public Affairs at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University. Her research focuses on both public and nonprofit management and the role of those sectors in the policy process. She has published numerous papers on the consequences of diversity and representation in public organizations.

Danyao Li

Danyao Li is an Assistant Professor at Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California. Her research aims to understand the ways in which design and implementation of policy programs impact disparities in policy outcomes. Her work focuses on representation and diversity, bureaucratic decision making and organizational performance, with a specific application to law enforcement.