Categories, Counts, and Proportions : Alternative Results in Measuring Team Functional Diversity

Previous research on functional diversity in teams has produced conflicting findings. Most research since 1992 has used counts of the number of different functions or one of two measures that apply different weights to the proportion of individuals within each functional category. Scholars have previously argued that the two proportional weighting methods are equivalent. We use simulation to show that all three methods produce different results with the same data and that these different measures provide one reason for the mixed results. We compare both the statistical properties of each measure and their fit with the existing literature on social influence processes to suggest the best current measure and directions for further research