Management Principles Course: Diversity's Impact on Teamwork

This essay examines the impact of diversity on teamwork within an organizational context. It begins by defining teamwork and highlighting its importance for organizational success, then identifies diversity as a key barrier to effective teamwork. The discussion delves into various aspects of diversity, including differences in beliefs, communication styles, and cultural backgrounds, and how these factors can lead to conflict, miscommunication, and decreased team cohesion. The essay also explores the impact of gender, cultural, and informational diversity on teamwork dynamics. It further addresses negative attitudes and behaviors that can arise from diversity, such as discrimination and stereotyping, and their detrimental effects on team morale and productivity. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for effective management strategies to mitigate the challenges of diversity and foster a positive and productive team environment, including strategies for team leaders to promote a good teamwork environment, 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 and adopt proper leadership style in order to assure that diverse individuals show respect as well as acceptance of the idea generated from each other.

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MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
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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, expedite idea generation, establish open culture and achieve success for the
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
Workplace diversity relates to variety of divergence among the employees in an
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
challenges for the human resource professionals. Although diversity is important for the

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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 by Hogan (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 by Nederveen 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.

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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 by Patrick and Kumar (2012)
that, the issues that diversity creates within the teamwork mainly leads to communication
breakdown and interpersonal conflict. It has been well known that the behavior of
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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individual experience and behavior within the teams. It has been cited by Ibarra, 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 to West (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
Morgan et 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,

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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
within the team is high turnover rate. Dissatisfied team members might feel that team
environment is unsafe and hence can leave the organization. This can increase the risk in
business of losing highly talented employees from 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

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when there is no such protocol as well as authority for ensuring some general practices. It has
been opined by Keddie (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 per Wiseman, Arroyo and Richter (2012), proper
implementation of leadership styles by the team leaders also leads to effective teamwork. It has
been suggested by Keddie (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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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.

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References
Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. 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: The role of cultural diversity on team performance. International Journal of
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. In Proceedings 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.

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Patrick, H.A. and Kumar, V.R., 2012. Managing workplace diversity: Issues and
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.