Bifurcated Effects of Place‐Of‐Origin Diversity on Individual and Team Performance: Evidence from Ten Seasons of German Soccer

Abstract

How does diversity affect performance? We develop a theoretical framework in which diversity of prevention employees (protecting the organization from harm) and of promotion employees (advancing positive outcomes) have different effects on individual and organizational performance. We use data for twenty‐eight soccer teams and 1723 players that played in 6120 games during ten seasons and find that diversity of defensive (prevention) players has a positive effect on player and team performance whereas the opposite holds for offensive (promotion) players. Joint tenure of offensive players tends to amplify these effects.