1MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES Introduction This essay provides an overview on how diversity acts as a barrier to the effective teamwork of an organization. Teamwork refers to collaborative effort of the team for achieving a common target of the organization in most effective as well as efficient way (Barak 2016). There are certain requirements for building an effective teamwork, which includes- adequate team size, skilled team members, proper guidance from the supervisor and support from the enterprise. Effective teamwork mainly creates its specific characteristics which make it possible for seeing cohesion in the group. Effective teamwork helps the organization to attain productive outcome in the business operations (Bond and Haynes 2014). Most effective teamwork generally happens when the individual contributors makes huge effort in achieving the goal of the company. One of the most vital building blacks for developing an effective team is the communication. Therefore, it is generally imperative for developing necessary skills in order to communicate properly with each team members. Effective teamwork at workplace facilitates the organization to enhance efficiency,expediteideageneration,establishopencultureandachievesuccessforthe organization. The leaders have to face several barriers while building effective teamwork. One of the barriers that is discussed in this essay is diversity. Discussion Workplacediversityrelatestovarietyofdivergenceamongtheemployeesinan enterprise.Diversity within the workplace mainly encompasses gender, age, religion, ethnic groups, citizenship status , mental as well as physical conditions, citizenship status and other discrete differences among the individuals. Managing diversity within the workplace creates challengesfor the human resource professionals. Although diversity is importantfor the
2MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES organization, it poses numerous challenges for the organization. One of such challenges that occurs while building an effective teamwork within the workplace is diversity. The members of team might have diverse beliefs, perspectives, communication styles, values, learning styles, levels of education, talents and behavioral abilities even though they unites in the cooperative effort. In addition to this, since the members of the team do not come from similar background or religion or do not share political ideas, it creates diversity among the individuals (Bond and Haynes 2014). These variables affect the team work in both positive as well as negative ways, thereby making few teams highly vulnerable and other teams resilient by uniting group efforts or creating conflicts among the team members. It has been opined byHogan(2012) that, diversity consciousness increases over time, thereby team leaders must have the ability to deal with variations and consequently change their leadership style or theories of creating effective teamwork. Furthermore, for working effectively as a part of diverse team, every member in the group must start the procedure by looking upon their personal efforts in order to determine whether they hinder or facilitate the group. Apart from this, it also helps to determine whether they cause conflicts with climate of commitment, flexibility, trust and cooperation. ‘ It has been found out by some researchers that diversity has huge affect on the performance of teamwork and thus it is required for the teams to become multicultural. Diversity within the workplace might create a barrier to the team cohesiveness as well as teamwork if the members of a team are uncomfortable to works with others, which have varying political, economic and social viewpoints. It has been opined byNederveen Pieterse, Van Knippenberg and Van Dierendonck,(2013) that, the team members feel comfortable to communicate as well as relate with others, which share similar views and backgrounds. According to (), diversity might potentially create tension within the teamwork, which in turn leads to gossip and distrust.
3MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES Diverse workforce also brings in different opinion as well as ideas, which in turn creates arguments among the team members. These arguments often might be unproductive and hence requires team leaders to step in this alleviate tension. Besides this, clashes of the opinions might also make team members less willing to trust as well as work with each other. Diversity also leads to increase in discrimination within the team that is based on few factors such as- gender, religion, race and so on. This discrimination takes several forms within the team such as- favoring certain team members, promoting few employees based upon specific factors which are not related to aptitude and performance, providing some team members preferable assignments or harassing few employees. However, this discrimination among the team members lowers their morale and thus leads to high cost lawsuits. It has been pointed out byPatrick and Kumar(2012) that, the issues that diversity creates within the teamwork mainly leads to communication breakdownandinterpersonalconflict.Ithasbeenwellknownthatthebehaviorof communication differs among the individuals, thereby one team member can communicate in direct way while another can prefer to nurturing approach. As a result of this divergent communicating behavior, it creates miscommunication between the team leaders and members. Apart from this, different working styles of the team members often create conflicts among them. One of the potential determinants of teamwork effectiveness is gender diversity since gender mix of a particular team might offer assortment of skills as well as knowledge. Gender diversity relates to the extent of gender heterogeneity which characterizes teamwork. In the present decades, gender diversity acts as a barrier in effective teamwork. The main reason behind this is that gender homogenous team might be constrained with the opinion diversity and thereby decreasing performance in the complex assignment in complex business environment. It has been evident from recent facts that gender diversity might create problems in communication,
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4MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES individual experience and behavior within the teams. It has been cited byIbarra, Ely and Kolb (2013) that, gender imbalance groups might probably have less interaction with the team leaders. This in turn might create misunderstandings and lead to increase in conflicts within the team. Moreover, if the team leader in an organization has biasness towards male, then the female employees might be less willing to participate in the team work. Overall, this determinant might adversely impact on the performance of the teamwork. According toWest(2012), diversity might also create integration issues within the teamwork. Diverse workforce can create informal divisions, which in turn might hinder social integration. It might lead to that circumstances in which culturally diverse workers might avoid each other. This in turn might hinder effectual sharing of skills, knowledge and experience among the team members.As a result, this might lead to decreased efficacy in team and total productivity in teamwork. Apart from this, cultural differences might also cause conflicts among the team members and thus prevent the teams from attaining maximum performance. As per Morganet al. (2014), language is also one of the largest barriers in building the team members from different cultures. The team members might face problem in understanding culturally- specific terms as they speak varied languages. This in turn might cause issues within the team and thus hamper effective teamwork. Besides this, trust among the team members is another crucial determinant that leads to effective teamwork in an organization. Owing to cultural diversity, the team leaders might face numerous difficulties in building trust among the team members. As a result, it might hinder effective team work for the short period of time. Information diversity relates to divergence in knowledge divergence in knowledge as well as perspectives which the team members bring in the team. This divergence among the team members occurs owing to their past experience and education. Although differences in training,
5MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES work experience and educational background enhances likelihood within the team, this diversity might likely cause conflict relating to task. Some researchers also found out that the team with diverse individuals might prove unsuccessful at capitalizing on advantage of this informational diversity. As a result of this conflict within the team, it might adversely impact on the teamwork. In addition to this, negative attitudes as well as behaviors of the team members can adversely impact the working relationships, damage morale of employees and productivity in work. Some examples of employees negative attitudes include- stereotyping, discrimination, prejudice and so on (Bond and Haynes 2014). Another negative aspect of this diversity is the recruitment of unqualified as well as unskilled workers owing to certain quotas. These unskilled employees might create several problems within the team regarding achievement of target. This in turn can reduce work productivity and performance of teamwork. It has been evident from recent studies that huge diversity in the workplace might lead to unresolved conflict within the team. However, this might create difficulty for the team leaders to manage these conflicts. One of the considerable bottom line impacts of badly managed diversity withintheteamishighturnoverrate.Dissatisfiedteammembersmightfeelthatteam environment is unsafe and hence can leave the organization. This can increase the risk in businessof losing highly talentedemployeesfrom the team.Nevertheless, diversity that differentiate multicultural team basically act as weaknesses by restraining team cohesion as well as sparkling all internal disputes. Multicultural team members can negatively influence on effective teamwork (Bouncken, Brem and Kraus 2016). Dissimilar cultural values as well as identities adversely impact the team spirit, which is vital for reaching higher productivity level. Besides this, decision making can be delayed owing to divergent opinions as well as views of the team members. Furthermore, it might also create disunity among the team members especially
6MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES when there is no such protocol as well as authority for ensuring some general practices. It has been opined byKeddie(2012) that, diversity might also create challenges for the team leaders in making transition or implementing change within the organization. Recent evidences reflects that there are few organizations that hire specialized expertise for keeping track on its diverse workers preferences as well as requirements. Furthermore, some organizations also have conflict management that focuses on the resolving any conflicts within the team and creating effective teamwork. As perWiseman, Arroyo and Richter(2012), proper implementation of leadership styles by the team leaders also leads to effective teamwork. It has been suggested byKeddie(2012) that, team leaders are required to identify diversity of the team members as well as attain common target without even destroying the individual’s uniqueness. In order to effectively manage diversity within the team, the team leaders must – Develop good teamwork environment within the organization Actively attain information about the individuals that comes from diverse cultural backgrounds Involve each individual in the problem solving as well as decision making procedure Create team spirit in order to make the individuals feel that they are crucial for the organization. Must adopt proper leadership style in order to assure that diverse individuals show respect as well as acceptance of the idea generated from each other Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be concluded that diversity can create hindrance within the teamwork even though it brings in higher value to the enterprise. Diversity can create several
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7MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES issues for the team leaders in terms of proper management of team work. It might also increase competition among the team members and hence can reduce unity among them. In addition to this, it also adversely impacts on the progress of teamwork and strength of the workers. Furthermore, diversity might also reduce total productivity and performance of the teamwork. It is however necessary for the team leaders to implement effective strategies in order to manage diverse workforce. Apart from this, the team leaders should also provide proper education as well as training to each team members about the diversity as well as its issues involving laws, rules and regulations. Moreover, it is also necessary for the team leaders to have patience and listen to each team members about their difficulties and resolve the issue effectively. Thus, it can be said that as diversity act as barrier to teamwork, team leaders should play the main role in managing diversity within the team and create effective teamwork.
8MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES References Barak,M.E.M.,2016.Managingdiversity:Towardagloballyinclusiveworkplace.Sage Publications. Bond, M.A. and Haynes, M.C., 2014. Workplace diversity: A social–ecological framework and policy implications.Social Issues and Policy Review,8(1), pp.167-201. Bouncken, R., Brem, A. and Kraus, S., 2016. Multi-cultural teams as sources for creativity and innovation:Theroleofculturaldiversityonteamperformance.InternationalJournalof Innovation Management,20(01), p.1650012. Hogan, M., 2012.The four skills of cultural diversity competence. Cengage Learning. Ibarra, H., Ely, R. and Kolb, D., 2013. Women rising: The unseen barriers.Harvard Business Review,91(9), pp.60-66. Keddie, A., 2012.Educating for diversity and social justice. Routledge. Morgan, J.T., Gilbert, M., McDonald, D.W. and Zachry, M., 2014, February. Editing beyond articles: diversity & dynamics of teamwork in open collaborations. InProceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing(pp. 550-563). ACM. Nederveen Pieterse, A., Van Knippenberg, D. and Van Dierendonck, D., 2013. Cultural diversity and team performance: The role of team member goal orientation.Academy of Management Journal,56(3), pp.782-804.
9MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES Patrick,H.A.andKumar,V.R.,2012.Managingworkplacediversity:Issuesand challenges.Sage Open,2(2), p.2158244012444615. West, M.A., 2012.Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research. John Wiley & Sons. Wiseman, P.P., Arroyo, H. and Richter, N., 2012.Reviving professional learning communities: Strength through diversity, conflict, teamwork, and structure. Rowman & Littlefield.