Abstract: Organization has become more and more diverse in the context of globalization, effective management of diversity in teams is increasingly critical for business success. Previous literature based on self-categorization theory have contended that members of diverse teams should embrace the superordinate identity of the group. In this article we advance a new perspective which is grounded in self-verification theory, to propose that the verification of personal self-views and social self-views of members in diverse teams promotes interpersonal congruence, fosters feelings of connectedness, and enhances decision quality and team effectiveness. When team members are organized into three types of subgroups—cliques, coalitions, and cohorts, different dynamics concerning self-verification processes will emerge, causing pertinent team leader orientation to be adopted to ensure the confirmation of team members’ self-views.

Key words: team diversity, group faultlines, self-verification, interpersonal congruence