Social climate in diverse university departments: the role of internal knowledge sharing

Background: A good social climate is a precondition for developing a well functioning staff in university departments. However, as universities are becoming increasingly diverse in their staff composition, new problems for the social climate may develop. Organisations where members are open to diversity are known to be better integrated and to perform better. While the relation between a positive social climate and group functioning is well documented, we know much less about antecedents for such a climate. Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of internal learning and knowledge sharing engagement (sharing informal knowledge of a personal nature and the staff's application of each other's knowledge to task relevant problems) on diversity climate (openness to linguistic, visual, value and informational diversity) among university teachers. Sample: The study used questionnaire responses from 489 teachers in multicultural Danish university departments. Design and methods: To study antecedents for a good diversity climate, statistical analysis including hierarchical multiple regressions was applied. Conclusions: Results showed that group members' engagement in: (1) sharing informal knowledge of a personal nature; and (2) their application of each other's knowledge to task relevant problems had strong positive associations with openness to linguistic, visible, value and informational diversity. We conclude that interaction and knowledge sharing among teachers in multicultural departments is likely to have a favourable effect on the social working climate.

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