The Challenge of Managing Diverse Teams

 Theme 2 : The Challenge of Managing Diverse Teams

The value within which members of the team vary in terms of abilities, knowledge, and viewpoints is characterized as diversity together within the team. Differences in understanding, expertise, and specializations are the three main elements of a diverse team, according to the concept of team diversity (Horwitz & Horwitz, 2007). Whenever a team is diverse in terms of character, sex, academic age, operational expertise, and experience, the team is more likely to obtain the qualities taken to accomplish its job efficiently. 

Nowadays, in this modern era, in today’s highly competitive environment, workplace diversity thus becomes highly relevant. This is due to the fact that diversity is acknowledged as the basis of creativity and innovation, and it will have an influence on strategic orientation.

Why Diverse team is very important towards an Organization

An organization frequently places a premium on activities and performance, believing that selecting personnel who can achieve these two requirements is adequate. Moreover, the value of the diversity of a team goes beyond that. The positives of the diversity of a team may be evident in the combination of various ideas, characteristics, and understandings from different cultural backgrounds. 

There are some advantages of having a diverse team, including the improvement of adaptability, broader service offering, diversity of viewpoints and perspectives, and a diversified set of skills and abilities are all advantages. 

  Improvement of adaptability delivers many answers to business challenges, enhancing an organization’s responsiveness to changing business and financial conditions. 

Broader service offering demonstrates that diverse talents enable your business to take alternative methods to offering services. When dealing with linguistic and cultural hurdles in areas like marketing, promotional tools, and interacting with talented individuals, this becomes much more apparent. 

Diversity of viewpoints and perspectives present concepts that, when properly mixed and linked, may help to foster innovation and creativity. 

A diversified set of skills and abilities are all advantages, having many capabilities accessible for a single work field promotes equitable employment distribution, allocation of resources, and intra and inter training. 

Diversity is also a challenge for the team. The more diverse the people on the team, the more complex everything that happens on the team becomes. According to Horwirtz, different member characteristics such as age, ethnicity, and expertise can have a detrimental impact on team results, and diversity also has a negative impact on team performance. Because diversity in a team is a very complex thing, it requires a leader who is able to manage the diversity that exists in the team (Horwitz & Horwitz, 2007). 

Challenges to team diversity can arise from confusing goals, people don’t know what to do. Then with incompatible needs, people with personal agendas work with different goals. Then sometimes the anti-team culture is implemented during the work, where the organization is not committed to the idea of team building. As well as undefined roles for some several members from the team, the team members are not sure what their jobs or their responsibilities towards the team’s goals are. 

Real-Life Industry Examples 

1. Accenture

Accenture, a worldwide consultancy and professional services organization, collaborates with through more than three-quarters of the Fortune 500 List and has clients in over 120 countries across 40 departments. Workplace diversity is at the core of this success.

Accenture has a rich history of valuing diversity as a foundation of creative ideas, innovative thinking, and market orientation. Accenture is well on its way to building a versatile, highly engaged workplace that includes individuals of all racial and ethnic origins, as well as seniors, military service members, and disabled individuals, according to the most recent reports. Accenture has aspired to be the most inclusive and diverse business in the world in previous years, ranking in the top 10 of DiversityInc’s 2018 Top 50 Corporations for diversity. Accenture places a high priority on each employee’s competencies and contribution to the company (“2018 DiversityInc top 50 companies for diversity,” n.d.). 

2. L’Oreal

L’Oreal, a top multinational performer, has a presence in 130 countries across five continents. L’Oreal Company, founded in France but with companies all around the world, is committed to encouraging diversity and inclusion in all parts of its operations. The world’s largest cosmetics corporation is continuously considering ways to strengthen its decade-long diversity policy. Human resources, marketing, and procurement are the three areas where this diversity within a team approach is applied. L’Oreal also sponsors disability awareness workshops in India, pairs staff with multicultural students in Dutch, and provides training to young people in disadvantaged Pakistani areas, among other worldwide programs. The organization is well-known for providing a diverse and inclusive training program for staff at all levels across the world (“L’oreal group : Promoting diversity & inclusion,” 2020). L’Oreal also ranked first for gender equality, with women accounting for 69 percent of the workforce and 53 percent of important roles. 

Recommendation

According to Bruce Tuckman, in order to grow, face difficulties, conquer issues, discover answers, organize work, and produce results, a diverse team must have a team building model that will always go through five phases. The five phases are the forming phase, the storming phase, the norming phase, the performing phase, and the adjourning phase (“Co-leader stages of development: An application of Tuckman and Jensen (1977),” 2005). The theory that Tuckman presented in 1977 will inevitably be passed by a team that will carry out its duties. 

Using Tuckman’s team building model is very helpful in developing potential and cooperation in a diverse team. Managers are able to get maximum results in managing the diverse teams within an organization by enhancing the bonds between team members and encouraging them to be more productive and more brilliant towards achieving the organizational goals of a team. On the other hand, when managers want to get their maximum results towards the goals of the organization using the Tuckman’s team building model, there are some limitations that are against it. The team building model is divided into five phases, where each of the phases is extremely difficult to maintain. Furthermore, while a few ideas to minimize conflicts were made, there is no quick fix for all problems in group communication. 

In conclusion, managing a diverse team has both positive and negative impact that brings to the organization. A manager and a leader are the one who have the biggest responsibilities in managing a diverse team. With the experience and knowledge, adequate skills training, and a full potential growth of development towards managing diverse teams, the key to achieve successful organization goals are at the manager and the leader’s hand. 

References 

The 2018 DiversityInc top 50 companies for diversity. (n.d.). NBMBAA – Empowering Visionaries. https://nbmbaa.org/the-2018-diversityinc-top-50-companies-for-diversity/

Accenture ranks 9th on DiversityInc top 50 companies for diversity® list. (n.d.). Newsroom | Accenture. https://newsroom.accenture.com/subjects/awards-rankings/accenture-ranks-9th-on-diversityinc-top-50-companies-for-diversity-list.htm

The effects of team diversity on team outcomes: A meta-analytic review of team demography. (n.d.). ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228389271_The_Effects_of_Team_Diversity_on_Team_Outcomes_A_Meta-Analytic_Review_of_Team_Demography

Co-leader stages of development: An application of Tuckman and Jensen (1977). (2005, December 1). ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247783496_Co-Leader_Stages_of_Development_An_Application_of_Tuckman_and_Jensen_1977

The effects of team diversity on team outcomes: A meta-analytic review of team demography. (n.d.). Academia.edu - Share research. https://www.academia.edu/887990/The_effects_of_team_diversity_on_team_outcomes_A_meta-analytic_review_of_team_demography

13 benefits and challenges of cultural diversity in the workplace. (2021, January 19). Hult International Business School. https://www.hult.edu/blog/benefits-challenges-cultural-diversity-workplace/

L'Oréal group : Promoting diversity & inclusion. (2020, January 23). L'Oréal. https://www.loreal.com/en/commitments-and-responsibilities/for-the-people/promoting-diversity-and-inclusion/

L'Oreal reports on diversity. (2016, January 6). Global Cosmetic Industry. https://www.gcimagazine.com/brands-products/news/news/21854979/loreal-reports-on-diversity