Analysis of Workplace Diversity Management Strategies

This essay delves into the multifaceted aspects of workplace diversity management, examining the challenges and opportunities that arise from a diverse workforce. It explores how organizations can effectively lead and manage diverse teams to enhance performance, social integration, and overall well-being. The essay analyzes three research articles, focusing on the Categorisation-Elaboration Model (CEM), Leadership-Member Exchange (LMX) theory, and the Hill Model, as well as the concept of diversity mindsets. It highlights the importance of leadership in fostering a positive work environment, reducing intergroup bias, and promoting information-elaboration. The essay also discusses the similarities and dissimilarities in the authors' approaches, emphasizing the need for task-oriented knowledge, leadership strategy, and HR practices to create a thriving and productive environment for diverse workgroups. The conclusion stresses the importance of strategic approaches to leverage diversity for a competitive edge while preventing organizational dysfunction.

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Workplace Diversity Management
Student’s Name

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Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Articles overview 3
Method of Analysis 4
Research Findings 4
Critical Analysis 5
Similarities and Dissimilarities in the Authors’ approach…………………………………….8
Conclusion and Recommendations……………………………………………………………..9

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Introduction
Diversity in a workplace or organization refers to the difference in mindsets and work culture of
the people in the organisation based on the differences in their age, personality, education,
gender, race, religion, tenure, cultural beliefs, and more. In the global business age transcending
borders and developing a diverse workforce is imperative for organisations to succeed and gain a
competitive edge in the business world. Managing the demographically diverse workforce in the
best interests of the organisation is one of the key challenges confronting the managers today
(Boehm, and Dwertmann, 2015). This essay will discuss the studies carried out in the three
research articles to measure the effects of variables that help in moderating the effects of
workplace diversity among the people on the well-being, social-integration, and the other
performance related-variables and how the managers in an organisation can lead and manage a
diverse workforce effectively. This essay will also discuss the diversity mindsets as the
moderators of the relationship between performance and diversity.
Articles Overview
The authors of the three articles mention the benefits of having a diverse workforce and the key
issues and challenges that the organisations are facing in managing and leading the
demographically diverse workforce effectively for better organisational performance. However,
while diverse workforce is definitely a big asset to the organisations today with new ideas,
creativity and innovation lending the company a competitive edge, the same diversity in teams
can lead to dysfunction in organisations because of the communication barriers due to the diverse
demographic backgrounds of the team members (Guillaume, Dawson, Otaye‐Ebede, Woods, and
West, 2017). Therefore, the managers in modern day organisations have a challenging task to

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lead a diverse workforce in a manner that solicits the positive aspects of diversity and eliminate
or mitigate the negative impacts of the diverse workforce. The managers are also faced with the
task of identifying the attitudes, beliefs, climate, and the other factors which can help in
enhancing the positive effects of diversity and eliminating the harmful effects of diversity like
intergroup bias and interpersonal tension at the same time (Shaban, 2016). The diversity mindset
theory proposed by the authors tries to understand and moderate the relationship that exists
between effective performance and diversity of workgroups (Knippenberg, Ginkel, and Homan,
2013).
Method of Analysis
The authors Guillaume, et.al, use the CEM or Categorisation-Elaboration Model to explain the
elements that work to moderate the impact of workplace diversity on the facets of performance,
social integration, and the outcomes related to well-being (Guillaume, Dawson, Otaye‐Ebede,
Woods, and West, 2017). In the second study the author Shaban discusses how two specific
leadership theories can help in enhancing the positive performance of the diverse teams and help
the managers in leading the diverse teams effectively within their organisations (Shaban, 2016).
In the third article the authors Knippenberg et. al., propose the use of three mindsets of accuracy,
sharedness, and the awareness of the sharedness, as moderators in the relationship between
performance and diversity (Knippenberg, Ginkel, and Homan, 2013). The three papers have used
qualitative and secondary research to support their arguments and findings.
Research Findings
The authors Guillaume et.al. surmised in their study that social integration and performance of
the individuals could be enhanced with the help of positive intergroup interactions and contacts.

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They also surmised that individual differences play the role of key moderators in
demographically diverse group members (Brunow, and Blien, 2014). In the second article, the
author Shaban proposes that using theories like the LMX theory and the Hill’s leadership model
can help the managers in an organisation understand the diversity challenges and the differences
in the culture and ethics of the different members of the teams (Lunenburg, 2010). The leaders
can use this understanding of the individual differences to discern the means that can capitalise
the diverse viewpoints, skills, and backgrounds to maximise the productivity of the team
(Northouse, 2015).
In the third study the authors Knippenberg et. al. have put forward propositions based on the
diversity mindsets that can help in providing a better understanding of the perplexing questions
related to workforce diversity and performance benefits. While developing diversity mindsets the
organisations should look at diversity as a source of information which can help in providing
elaborated team information that result in performance benefits (van Ginkel, and van
Knippenberg, 2012). Another key feature is that leadership in an organisation today has a crucial
role to play in understanding and developing the right diversity mindsets, therefore, organisations
need to develop their HR practices to develop an understanding of the diversity mindsets (Hajro,
Gibson, and Pudelko, 2017).
Critical Analysis
The CEM Model describes the diversity as the differences between the people on any attribute or
feature that can lead to the perception that one person is different from the other individual.
According to the CEM model diversity works in two ways, the processes of information-
elaboration and the processes of social categorisation that may result in intergroup bias (Joshi,

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Liao, and Roh, 2011). To moderate the impact of the workforce diversity on the overall
organisational performance, diversity-management and growth-oriented strategies may help in
promoting the concept of a greater value-in-diversity. This would help in facilitating the relevant
information flow and which would, in turn, result in informed decision-making and promoting
innovation (Podsiadlowski, Gröschke, Kogler, Springer, and Van Der Zee, 2013).
However, the innovation and creativity of the groups involved in complex task performance are
dependent on the task-specific knowledge associated with demographic diversity. Therefore,
principles of CEM can be used to augment the performance on innovative tasks to provide the
right training for team building and leadership practices. Another crucial element that can help in
positively augmenting the workforce diversity is the reduction of uncertainty between the
demographically dissimilar groups in their interactions with one another (Patrick, & Kumar,
2012). The individual perceptions of the people on their attitude towards diversity, learning goal
inclinations, and other personality oriented variables like openness have a positive impact on the
workforce diversity (Pieterse, Van Knippenberg, and Van Dierendonck, 2013).
The research also highlights that in managing the workforce diversity leadership has a very
crucial role to play. The leaders are the key players in creating the work environment where the
benefits of a diverse workforce may multiply to benefit the organisation. The leaders need to be
more inclusive and participative in their approach towards the demographically different
workgroups, display individual consideration when required, offer inspiring suggestions, and
motivate the employees to complete their tasks in an efficient manner. On the other hand, leaders
who display outward biases in their interpersonal relations with the team members they lead,
undermine the positive workplace conditions for accruing the diversity benefits (Ali, Kulik, and
Metz, 2011).

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The LMX theory of leadership promotes distributive and equal justice, therefore, this theory will
help the leaders in focusing on adopting a fair and equal approach while dealing with all their
followers and team members. The theory works on a simple principle that employees and
workers who work more efficiently and productively will be rewarded more than the others who
do not. Therefore, leaders while selecting the in-group members should avoid all the biases
related to age, religion, gender, race, ethnicity and other such factors in their decision-making.
The LXM theory would provide the outline to the leaders to evaluate the members of their team
in a fair and just manner and the guidelines mentioned in the theory will help the leaders in
eliminating the biases while taking their decisions which will help them in managing the diverse
teams in a more efficient and effective manner (Lunenburg, 2010.).
On the other hand, the Hill Model approach for team leadership would help the leaders in
identifying and assessing the problems of the team and taking timely and suitable action to
mitigate those problems. Due to the differences in cultures, values, and traditions the diverse
members of a workforce may face multiple numbers of problems while working with dissimilar
people and the Hill Model provides an insight into the functional leadership role (Northouse,
2015). The leaders play a decisive role in monitoring the workgroups and teams to ensure
effective productivity and this involves taking a decision whether the leaders should involve
themselves by intervening in solving any kind of relational or task-oriented issues. While task
oriented issues are related to planning and application, the relational issues are related to
problems arising due to lack of cohesion, interpersonal conflicts, communication barriers among
team members. The leaders also have to decide whether the problem can be solved by internal
intervention or an external intervention from outside the team’s scope (Patrick, and Kumar,
2012).

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However, there is a lack of clarity on the diversity-mindset concept as there is very little research
done to shed light on what actually must be done by the diversified workgroups to reap the
benefits of this diversity (Guillaume, Dawson, Woods, Sacramento, and West, 2013). One of the
principal aspects of the diversity mindsets is that every team has a specific nature and there
cannot be a universal or one-size-fit-all approach that can be applied to all diversified work
groups (Tisserant, Lorraine Wagner, and Barth, 2012). However, there are core characteristics
which are common to mindset accuracy like promotion-focused goals, exploration focused goals,
and procedural knowledge of the team related diversity which can serve as a useful source of
information (Guillaume, Dawson, Woods, Sacramento, and West, 2013).
To prevent miscommunication and coordinate the efforts of the team in the same direction, it is
very important that there should be a similarity in the mental representations of the members of a
diversified workgroup or team. Therefore, in the presence of accuracy of mindset, a sharedness
or similarity of the mental representation works to enhance the team task performance. Diversity
mindsets can have a more emphatic impact as a moderating influence on the work teams if they
are shared by a larger number of the team members, as this will facilitate coordinated actions and
prevent miscommunication. However, one of the big drawbacks in the propositions suggested by
the authors is that many of the conceptual frameworks proposed her have yet to be tested in an
empirical analysis (van Ginkel, and van Knippenberg, 2012).
Similarities and Dissimilarities in the Authors’ approach
The three articles emphasise the importance of leadership in developing the positive
environments to manage the growing diversified workforce in the organisations effectively. The
cultural differences represent one of the basic attributes to study and analyse the workforce

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diversity and the ways to shape it positively (Pieterse, Van Knippenberg, and Van Dierendonck,
2013). The three articles also emphasise that task-oriented knowledge, leadership strategy, and
HR practices all have to work together to create an atmosphere where diverse workgroups can
thrive and contribute positively to the organisation (Patrick, and Kumar, 2012).
The authors Guillaume et.al., stress on the elements of uncertainty reduction in workplaces
among members of diverse workgroups, information-elaboration, and self-enhancement as the
tools to improve the social integration, work performance, and the well-being of the people. On
the other hand, the author Shaban emphasises on the leadership and training aspects to deal with
the issues and challenges facing the organisations in growing diversified workplace environment
(Brunow, and Blien, 2014). While the authors, Knippenberg et al., stress on the fact that a better
understanding of the concepts of diversity and a favourable perspective in the mindset of the
people about working in culturally diverse teams can result in the people associating and
embracing the concept of diversity in a more positive manner (Boehm, and Dwertmann, 2015).
Conclusion and Recommendations
The organisations in the global business scenario need to devise approaches and strategies to
harness the power and influence of diversity in giving the business a distinctive competitive edge
in the market and to prevent organisational dysfunction from arising due to lack of cohesion
between inter cultural workgroups. While research till now has been focused on the concept of
preventing the negative outcome of cultural diversity in workplace, the future research should
aim to develop concepts and approaches that can steer the influence of diverse cultural mindset
towards innovation and ingenuity, that is beneficial to the individuals, team, and the organisation
as a whole (Guillaume, Dawson, Woods, Sacramento, and West, 2013).

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