Leveraging Difference

Professor Kristin Behfar sat down with UVA Today to share six tips for doing away with — or at least minimizing — the day-to-day frustrations that crop up despite our best intentions.

As employees spend an ever-growing proportion of their time in teams at the workplace, companies and psychologists the world over have long been trying to decode the ideal mix of individual qualifications and group traits that make those teams operate as optimally as possible.

How do people respond to social identity threats — circumstances under which people think they may be devalued simply because of their social identity (ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation) or membership in a particular group?

How can businesses tackle a seemingly intractable problem such as stereotyping? Leaders have to structure processes correctly to weed out bias.

How can companies stop spinning their wheels and make real progress toward diversity and inclusion? This case study looks at how JPMorgan Chase worked on getting managers to recruit the best talent from the largest talent pool.