Abstract

PUENTE-PALACIOS, Katia Elizabeth; SEIDL, Juliana  and  SILVA, Rafael Almeida Dutra da. To be or to look different: the role of diversity in teamwork's satisfaction. Rev. Psicol., Organ. Trab. [online]. 2008, vol.8, n.2, pp. 79-97. ISSN 1984-6657.

The current organizational context is characterized by globalization and advanced innovations that require the development of knowledge related to the management of how to improve the benefits of human diversity, each day more present in the organizations involved in this scenario. At the same time, in these organizations, work teams are being frequently used as units of performance. This situation increases the need to understand the effects of diversity on the satisfaction of work teams. To that end, empirical data was collected in odontological work teams. The sample was composed of 68 health professionals, being 75% women. The information was raised using self-applied questionnaires that focused on perceived differences, real differences and on the satisfaction of the work teams. The results showed that satisfaction is predicted only by perceived differences (p=0,01), and not by real differences (p=0,70), obtaining a 9,2% of variance explained. Therefore, the professionals that perceived themselves as different from their colleagues were less satisfied than those who were visibly different age wise.

Keywords : work teams; satisfaction; diversity; objective difference; subjective difference.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )