An Analysis of Management Principles: Teamwork and Diversity Essay

This essay critically analyzes the impact of diversity on teamwork within contemporary business organizations. It explores the arguments for and against diversity as a barrier to effective teamwork, drawing on various scholarly articles. The essay discusses challenges such as language barriers, differing opinions, and cultural conflicts that can arise in diverse teams. Conversely, it also highlights the potential benefits of diversity, including the generation of innovative ideas, improved employee performance, and better customer service. The analysis considers how different authors view the impact of diversity on teamwork, offering a balanced perspective on the complexities of managing diverse teams and the potential for both positive and negative outcomes. The essay concludes by summarizing the contradictory views on diversity in the workplace and its impact on teamwork, emphasizing the importance of understanding the nuances of this issue in modern management.

Running head: MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
Management principles
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
Introduction
One of the major concepts being followed in the contemporary business organizations is
teamwork. This concept refers to the creation of team with a group of employees with having
same expertise and same objectives. This helps the organizations to have more communication
and coordination among the employees along with having more probability of generating
innovative ideas. On the other hand, in the current era of globalization, majority of the global
firms are having diversified set of employees belonging from different social and cultural areas.
This is also leading to have teams in the organization with having diverse team members in
place. However, there are number of advantages and disadvantages being faced by the
contemporary business organizations from having diverse teams in place.
In view to this issue, there are number of different opinions being given by different
authors. This essay will use different scholarly articles in order to justify the statement that
diversity is a barrier to effective teamwork. The opinions of the authors will be critically
analyzed in order to identify both the negative and positive aspects of them.
Language barrier
One of the challenges or barriers that can get emerged from the diversity in the team is
language issue. This is due to the reason that in any organizational teams, the major objective is
to collectively achieve the set goals. Thus, it is responsibility of the team leaders or team
managers to effectively communicate with their team members. However, in the case of the
diversity in the teams, employees or the team members will be comfortable in different
languages. This is mainly due to the reason that different social and cultural groups are having
different language for communication. According to Tenzer, Pudelko and Harzing (2014),

2MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
having different employees from different social and cultural backgrounds will affect the
communication process in the team. The authors have also stated that if the leader and his
subordinates are from different social backgrounds, then their language will be also different.
Thus, the leader cannot communicate his vision to his subordinates while the team members
while the team members will not be able to communicate their issues and grievances to their
managers.
Thus, according to the authors, diversity in the workplace will prove challenging for the
managers as well as for the employees to effectively communicate with each other. However, the
basic objective of the team concept is to enhance the level of communication among the team
members and it cannot get achieved with having diverse team in place. Moreover, the authors
have also discussed that language barriers may also create threat of miscommunication among
the team members. This is due to the reason that difference in language may lead to have
different meanings for the members. For instance, the different language used by the team
managers may create some unwanted meaning for their team members.
Difference in opinions
Another major barrier for effective teamwork in terms of the diversity of the employees is
the difference in opinions. This is due to the reason that the more will be the diversity of the
employees, the more will be the employees from different social and cultural backgrounds.
According to Ewoh (2013), one of the major threats of diversity for the effective teamwork is
difference in opinions among the employees. This is due to the reason that employees from
different social and cultural backgrounds will have different set of approaches for a certain issue.
Different team members from a particular team will come up with different approaches.

3MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
According to the authors, though the primary objective of the teamwork is to generate different
opinions but building consensus among the diverse employees with having diverse opinions will
be a difficult task for the managers. Thus, according to the authors, in case of the diversified
team members, it will be difficult for the managers to create consensus among the team
members. They have also stated that in case of the diverse team. Employees from the particular
social group will not accept to opinion of the employees from another social group. Therefore,
this will reduce the effectiveness of the teamwork.
Cultural conflict
Another major challenge that can be posed by the diversity in the workforce for the
effective teamwork is the cultural conflict. This is due to the reason that in case of the diversity
in the workplace, different employees will be from different social and cultural background.
However, this will also raise the concern regarding the clash of culture among the employees.
According to Martin (2014), employees from the different cultures will have entirely different
approaches in relation to their lifestyles. Thus, the similar working environment will have both
negative and positive impression among different employees. Thus, teams with having diverse
team members will have the probability of cultural conflicts among the stakeholders. Moreover,
it will become difficult for the managers to consider all the diverse requirements and
expectations of the employees.
Moreover, the core objectives of coordination and cooperation among the employees in
the team will be affected with having employees from different cultures. This is due to the reason
that cooperation and coordination among the employees will be possible only when the
employees will be from the same social and cultural groups. Thus, on the other hand, employees

4MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
from different social and cultural groups will tend to not get match with each other and thus the
effectiveness of the team will get reduced. Moreover, the increase in the probability of the
cultural conflict or clash will be more due to the reason that some sort of contradicting factors
between the two cultural or social groups will always be evident. This will in turn reduce the
effectiveness of the teamwork.
The previous sections discussed about the opinion of the authors who have given
negative reviews about the impact of the diversity in the workplace on the effectiveness of the
teamwork. However, there are some other authors who have given positive reviews about the
impact of diversity on the effectiveness of the teamwork. According to them diversity is not a
barrier for the effective teamwork in turn it helps in enhancing the effectiveness of the teamwork.
Thus, these theories given by the authors are contradicting the previous theories discussed.
Generation of innovative ideas
According to Lambert (2016), one of the major advantages that can get emerged from
having diversity in the team is having more source of generating innovation. This is due to the
reason that more will be the diversity in the workplace; the more will be the possibility of having
unique ideas from the team. According to the authors, employees from different social and
cultural groups will be able to share their knowledge with one another. Moreover, due to the fact
that diversity in the workplace will have employees with having different and diverse
approaches, the team will get benefited from having more sources of generating diverse
information. The authors also stated that generation of more diverse ideas will ensure that the
team will come up with unique and distinctive solutions against any certain issues. Thus, it can
be concluded that diversity is not creating any barrier for the effective teamwork.

5MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
Improvement of the employee performance
Another advantage stated by the authors regarding the effectiveness of diversity in the
teamwork is improvement in the employee performance. According to Van Knippenberg, van
Ginkel and Homan (2013), diversity in the workplace will help in improving the performance of
the team. This is due to the fact that diversity in the workplace will ensure that employees will
get to know about different approaches from different employees. This will increase their
effectiveness and performance of the employees. Thus, the more effective will be the employee
performance, the more will be the performance improvement of the team. Diversity will also
ensure that the team members are better equipped to deal with different and diverse
organizational issues. Thus, according to these authors, diversity cannot be treated as the barrier
for the effective teamwork, rather it can be stated that diversity can help in enhancing the
performance of the team members. If the performance of the employees can get improved by the
help of having diversity, then it can be considered as the diversity is helping in having effective
teamwork rather than creating barrier in the process.
Difference of opinions among the employees
As discussed earlier, difference among the employees is identified as one of the major
challenges in having diversity in the team. However, there are some authors who have stated that
difference in opinions can get emerged even if the employees are from same and similar set of
social group. According to Bradley, Klotz, Postlethwaite and Brown (2013), there are number of
reasons that can raise the issue of conflict in the team other than the diversity. It is discussed that
personal approach of the employees also determines the emergence of conflict in the team. Thus,

6MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
employee conflict can get aroused in the team with having different mentality and approaches of
the employees even they are from the same social and cultural group.
The authors have also stated that diversity may be one of the reasons for conflict in the
teamwork but it is not the major and only reason. According to this discussion, it can be
concluded that diversity cannot be treated as a barrier for the effective teamwork.
Better customer service
Another major advantage being stated by some authors for diversity in the team is better
quality of customer service. As per Walsh and Bartikowski (2013), in the current time it is
important for the contemporary business organizations is understand the requirement and trend
of the diverse customer segment. This is due to the reason that in the current business scenario,
majority of the business organizations operates in the global market and thus they are having
employees from different social and cultural groups. According to the authors, having diversity
in the team will help in effectively catering to these diversified set of customers. This is due to
the reason that organizational team with having employees from different social and cultural
groups will be able to determine the different requirements of the customers. Thus, the service
quality for the customers will get enhanced and this will in turn increase the effectiveness of the
team.
Acceding to the authors, diversity is not a barrier to the effective teamwork rather it is
enhancing the competitiveness of the team by improving the quality of the customer service.
Moreover, it is also stated by the authors that diversity in the team is not only limited to the
cultural and social differences but also in terms of the education and qualification and expertise.
According to them, a diversified team can be termed if the team members are having different

7MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
qualification and expertise. This also can enhance the effectiveness of the team due to the fact
that the more will the diversity in terms of expertise of the team members, the more effective will
be the team in dealing with different issues. In addition, the team leader will have the access to
different expertise, which will further help in dealing with different issues.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that there are contradicting views regarding considering
diversity as the barrier for effective teamwork. This essay discussed about different views for
and against diversity as barrier in effective teamwork. It is discussed in this essay that one of the
major challenges that can get generated from the initiation of diversity in the teamwork is
cultural differences and language issue. On the other hand, diversity will also help the team to
have multiple benefits such as more different expertise and skills of the team members.
Moreover, it is also discussed in this essay that diversity in the teamwork will further help in
having effective process of knowledge sharing among the stakeholders and generation of
innovative ideas. Thus, it can be concluded that diversity in the teamwork may have advantages
or disadvantages for the teams based on their situation. A few teams may get benefited from
having the diversity among the team members while some other will face most of the challenges.

8MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
Reference
Bradley, B.H., Klotz, A.C., Postlethwaite, B.E. and Brown, K.G., 2013. Ready to rumble: How
team personality composition and task conflict interact to improve performance. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 98(2), p.385.
Ewoh, A.I., 2013. Managing and valuing diversity: Challenges to public managers in the 21st
century. Public Personnel Management, 42(2), pp.107-122.
Martin, G.C., 2014. The effects of cultural diversity in the workplace. Journal of Diversity
Management (Online), 9(2), p.89.
Tenzer, H., Pudelko, M. and Harzing, A.W., 2014. The impact of language barriers on trust
formation in multinational teams. Journal of International Business Studies, 45(5), pp.508-535.
Van Knippenberg, D., van Ginkel, W.P. and Homan, A.C., 2013. Diversity mindsets and the
performance of diverse teams. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 121(2),
pp.183-193.
Walsh, G. and Bartikowski, B., 2013. Exploring corporate ability and social responsibility
associations as antecedents of customer satisfaction cross-culturally. Journal of Business
Research, 66(8), pp.989-995.