Inclusion Echo Chambers: How Homogeneous Subgroups Form Within Diverse Teams

Here's something that keeps popping up in the qualitative studies - Monson et al. (2025) found that even in diverse teams, people of color and support staff often have different experiences than their colleagues. This suggests that diversity at the team level doesn't guarantee inclusion at the subgroup level. This research would use social network analysis combined with ethnographic observation to map how diverse teams actually organize themselves into smaller, often homogeneous, interaction clusters. We'd look at how these subgroups form, what functions they serve for their members, and how they affect overall team performance and inclusion. This would reveal the hidden dynamics that traditional team-level D&I metrics miss and could explain why some diverse teams still struggle with collaboration issues. It's a micro-level approach that complements the macro-level D&I research that dominates the field.

References:

1. Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives: A qualitative study on community health clinic team member perspectives.. Samantha Pelican Monson, Laura M. Ramzy, Shambhavi Prathap, Rocio I. Pereira (2025). Families, Systems & Health.