I was talking with a peer recently and they mentioned something that made me laugh internally, they mentioned how people in this other group were all the same and how anyone that would step out of line in the other group would be kicked out. On the other hand, the group they were part of was very diverse and that diversity is what causes problems with their group reaching their goals. The part that made me laugh was that I had heard almost the exact same thing from someone in the “other” group a month or so before. Perception is an interesting thing.
To start, I am going to ignore the topic of the benefits and costs of diversity in groups as that could be a page by itself. Instead focusing on just how often this in group vs out group phenomenon appears; sometimes called the us-vs-them mentality.
When reading the first paragraph, the mind might have jumped straight to politics, especially in the United States with the Democrats and Republicans. However, if you pause and think about your workplace you might notice a similar pattern between a large influx of new employees or management and old exist employees or management. This pattern could also be seen between two organizations within your workplace, or maybe even between your team and another team in the same organization. Within my own organization, I can find examples of each.
Now, maybe this is where I am suppose to say that is pattern is bad and we should work to remove it. However, that would be going against a fundamental human trait. Instead, we should focus on recognizing when the patterns is occurring; which is hard when you are part of one of the groups.
After recognizing that the pattern exists somewhere, the question is if the usage of the in vs out groups is good and if you can do anything about. Sometimes the pattern helps build a little friendly competition between teams. However, other times it can result in violence between the groups.