creating the framework for the team to produce its optimal output in an efficient manner is the definition of success. Often measuring the productivity benefits of team diversity can be difficult due to the many factors present in teams, especially among knowledge workers with more nebulous job descriptions. Satisfaction benefits Certain types of diversity, such as functional or demographic, have been linked to increased job performance as well as job satisfaction. It is currently theorized that an increase in diversity among organization members forces the standard for communication to be higher since in-group understanding is not guaranteed, and that the increased level of communication could be what increases team member satisfaction. However, this is yet to be proven definitively causal. Costs While diversity, in theory, can promote a wide range of ideas originating from people from different backgrounds, it is not always the case that diversity improves a group's functioning. Different types of diversity have widely different effects on team satisfaction and functioning. Demographic diversity Increased demographic diversity has frequently been linked to increased task-based conflict and personality conflict. While this sometimes can be mediated by applying concepts of organizational behavior, this usually results in a net loss in productivity. However, if this net loss is minimized, the loss of productivity is often considered a cost of doing business by organizations that are trying to encourage fairness in hiring. Often small process losses are considered better than the alternative, which is the potential for poor public relations and angry shareholders due to a less diverse organization. Personality diversity Personality diversity offers the most clear-cut examples of diversity that can negatively impact a team. Differences in levels of extraversion or neuroticism can deeply cut into productivity with process losses as well as personality conflicts. In agreement with various social categorization and attraction theories, the evidence strongly suggests that this type of diversity is typically more of an obstacle to a group's functioning and performance. This will not come as a shock to most organizations, as it has been the consensus for a long time in many areas of psychology that certain personality traits only lend themselves to counterproductive workplace behaviors. It benefits organizations that value diversity to attempt to minimize the presence of those traits across the board while pursuing other types of diversity. References Group processes Teams