Everyone knows that diversity is great for organizations. A healthy mix of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual preference, etc. makes for more productive teams.
Cultural fit is also important. Everyone needs to get along. Everyone needs to respect the goals of the organization. Yet, too often superficial measures are used to qualify new recruits for cultural fit. Common interests, hobbies, tastes in music, etc. may make it easy to be friends with everyone, but it can also lead to a very boring work environment. It can encourage complacency and discourage new ideas that challenge assumptions. In short, cultural fit can undermine the benefits of diversity. Group think becomes more powerful than superficial diversity.
A new thought is to include acquired diversity in order to build high performing teams. Traits like military service, foreign language skills, unrelated job or educational backgrounds, and experience living abroad can contribute to diversity in ways that are bypassed when striving for cultural fit.
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