Perceived Dissimilarity and Perspective Taking Within Work Teams

Abstract

The authors investigate the relationship between employee perceptions of surface- and deep-level dissimilarity and within-team perspective taking. Results suggest that the more dissimilar employees perceive themselves to be from their fellow team members in terms of their work style, the less their perspective taking (i.e., lower positive attributions and empathy). In addition, the authors found that perceived work-style dissimilarity interacted with a contextually salient surface-level attribute (perceived age dissimilarity) such that when perceived work-style dissimilarity was low, perceived age dissimilarity had a stronger negative effect on within-team perspective taking. This study demonstrates the importance of considering perspective taking in their understanding of the effects of dissimilarity within teams and furthers theoretical understanding of the effects of relational demography by testing competing theories undergirding relational demography research.