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Section C
What More Innovation? Get More Diversity (多样性)
Research by my colleague and I suggests that university administrators who do not work hard to attract and retain African-American teaching staff may well be missing out an important benefit: Academic departments that are more diverse may produce more creative ideas and work.
A mathematical model has been developed to study the effects of diversity. And we discovered a simple truth: More diverse groups may do better because they are less conformist（墨守成规的）.
Picture it: You’re brainstorming with your best friend of 30 years. You grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same school, and stood up for each other at your weddings. When a crazy idea crosses your mind, you immediately see all the reasons why he may dismiss it. On the other hand, you know what ideas he is receptive to – so why not start with those?
Now suppose you’re brainstorming with someone who grew with a different perspective and who has a very different experiences from you. Would you be willing to share your crazy ideas with her? After all, you have no clue what ideas she is open – so why not try it out?
Something like this may be going on in the academic workplace. We often don’t realize it, but we constantly think about how people around us will react to us. In itself, this is not a bad thing. If we didn’t put ourselves into other people’s shoes, we’d experience even more disagreements and misunderstandings than we already do.
But our research suggests that a little unpredictability may not be a bad thing. In fact, a little more unpredictability may be what we need to make us all a little less conformist and a little more open to try new things.
Extensive data suggest that more diverse teams outperform homogeneous (同质的) teams when it is crucial to be innovative, which agrees with our mathematical model.
So if diverse groups outperform more homogeneous ones, why do university administrators not to choose to hire more African-Americans? There are many reasons, but one is that people have the tendency to hire people like themselves. Interacting with people like ourselves allows us to stay within our comfort zones. It is certainly easier to find common ground with friends of 30 years than with a stranger. Yet given the increasing emphasis on innovation and creativity in today’s economy, it pays for universities to actively pursue a more racially and ethnically diverse teaching staff. So, stop hiring people who look like you.
78.Research by the writer and his colleague indicates that the more diverse academic apartments are, ________________________________________.
79. According to the writer, showing ready comprehension of others’ situation will contribe to _________________.
80. As is suggested in the research, what can make us more open to diversity？
81. Why is a university administrator more likely to hire people like him?
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