The challenges of managing diverse teams
The challenges of managing diverse teams
“It is people who are the organization” (Mullins, 2016, p. 2)
Nowadays, in the dynamic business environment, it is essential to understand the organizational behavior, which is related to the understanding of people’s manner. In the organization, despite the same vision and mission, employees come from different societies as well as having diverse backgrounds and attitudes, which are factors that considerably associate with company’s goal (Taras, Steel, & Kirkman, 2011, p. 189). To stand competitive, being specialized is inadequate because it is necessary to work cooperatively in cross-cultural teams. Thus, it is significant for managers to supervise members, especially with diverse perspectives, towards achievement and objectives.
However, diversity in workplace sometimes demonstrates downsides. For example, in some organizational agreement, diversity could lead to misunderstanding and cause cultural fight (Amaram, 2007, p. 4). Therefore, this blog aims to explore the challenges and difficulty in managing organizational diverse teams.
Theoretically, Drucker stated 3 important tasks for managers, which are to achieve the organization’s objective, utilize member’s specialization towards organization’s goal, and maintain social responsibilities in company’s activities (Mullins, 2016, p. 356). Regardless of various stated managerial philosophies, one obvious aspect is the expertise in efficiently managing members.
Hofstede Cultural Dimensions
Hofstede cultural dimensions
Note. From Hofstede Cultural Dimensions, by Binus University School of Information Systems, 2019,
(https://sis.binus.ac.id/2019/03/04/hofstedes-six-dimensions-of-culture/)
According to the employee’s diverse culture, Geert Hofstede determined 6 cultural dimensions shown in figure 1, that help identify job-related cultural values in different countries and are broadly acceptable and implemented in the business practices. As a result, Hofstede’s dimensions are cultural characteristics that can be used to compare different cultures’ behavior and are beneficial for manager who seeks to understand their followers’ different perspectives due to their different locations. For instance, people in countries with masculinity score higher than 43 tend to be money-oriented, while people in countries with masculinity score below 42 are more consensus oriented (Hofstede, 1986, p. 308).
Real-world Examples
One example for a manager who integrates diversity as a critical component in striving company towards success is Carmine Di Sibio, CEO of Ernst & Young (EY) company which is known as one of the Big Four accounting firms. He believes in the power of diversity and manages his teams through members’ diverse opinions and abilities and creates a company’s roadmap related to this diversity’s perspective (Ernst & Young Global Limited, 2021). However, Carmine does not only take advantages from member’s diverse capabilities, but he also encourages members to work interdependently, considered as one of the perfect team’s characteristics (Mullins, 2016, p. 9). Moreover, it is believed that the market share and new market capture would likely increase by 45% and 70%, respectively, in a company with diverse teams (Hewlett, Marshall, Sherbin, & Gonsalves, 2013, p. 51).
Another example is from the American retailer known as Walmart. In 2002, a human resource director of Walmart rejected to hire the black applicant for the truck driver position, although he holds driver’s license and has satisfactory working record. In addition, the director also told the black applicant that he should be hired in labor position instead. As a result, Walmart had to pay $17.5 million settlement of a lawsuit in case of discrimination and make job posting advertisement specially for African Americans (Reuters, 2009).
Conclusion
“Creativity thrives on diversity” (Morgan, 1989, p. 76)
In the workplace, it is obvious that people have many different cultures, backgrounds, experiences, and skills. The ability to manage diverse groups of people and enhance their individual talent is crucial, as it can be seen from the tangible outcome in EY’s example. On top of that, supporting workplace’s diversity is not only beneficial for the company, but also for the employees in opportunities to increase their hidden skills (Robinson & Dechant, 1997, p. 27).
However, human perception, for example, the expectation of employees to have a leader recognize their efforts, is a challenge for the manager to carefully look after and keep faith with them so that better results could occur. On the other hand, if the manager is reckless of diverse team’s values and unsupportive in diversity, company could miss opportunities such as, organizational ability to adapt to changes and chance to interact with foreign market, or even cause losses just as Walmart’s example.
List of References
Management (JDM), 2(4) ,1–6. https://doi.org/10.19030/jdm.v2i4.5017
https://sis.binus.ac.id/2019/03/04/hofstedes-six-dimensions-of-culture/
Hewlett, S. A., Marshall, M., Sherbin, L., & Gonsalves, T. (2013). Innovation, Diversity and Market Growth.
Center for Talent Innovation.
Hofstede, G. (1986). Cultural differences in teaching and learning. International Journal of Intercultural
Relations, 10(3), 301–320. https://doi.org/10.1016/0147-1767(86)90015-5
Morgan, G. (1989). Endangered Species: New Ideas. Business Month, 133(4), 75-77.
11(3), 21–31.
the differences still make a difference?. Organizational Dynamics, 40(3), 189-198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2011.04.006
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