Title

Status-Based Stereotyping Effects on Military Team Performance

Authors

Lissa V. Young, United States Military AcademyFollow
Elizabeth L. Wetzler, United States Military Academy

Files

Contributing USMA Research Unit(s)

Behavioral Sciences and Leadership

Publication Date

Fall 2021

Publisher

The European Journal of Military Studies-Res Militaris

Document Type

Article

Description

Work teams are often touted as a way to increase or enhance organizational performance[1] and yet, both research[2] and anecdotal evidence suggest that they often fail to do so. While there are several reasons why teams may not succeed in producing optimal performance, one particularly salient issue is the underutilization of team members’ knowledge and skills.[3] Indeed, it is well documented that team members are often unable to fully capitalize on the team’s collective know-how due to members’ inability to see beyond their own demographic, be it gender, race or social status, to leverage one another’s task-relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities.[4] Unfortunately, this oversight can leave much of the team’s talent untapped, potentially hindering the team’s performance.[5] The cost of this oversight can be significantly deleterious to military operations.

[1] Addison & Haig, 2012 ; Pentland, 2012 ; Devaraj & Jiang, 2019.

[2] Thatcher & Patel, 2011 ; van Dijk et al., 2012 ; Malik et al., 2019.

[3] Hackman, 2002 ; Bachrach et al., 2019.

[4] Foschi et al., 1985 ; Randolph, 2019.

[5] Kochan et al., 2003 ; Austin, 2003 ; Hochberg, 2020.

Publisher City

Paris

Keywords

Social Psychology, Stereotyping, Team Dynamics, Team Performance, Leadership

Volume

11

Recommended Citation

Young, L. & Wetzler, E. (2021) Stereotyping and Team Performance: Evidence from a Military Context. The European Journal of Military Studies. 11(2).