The Challenge of Managing Diverse Teams

A diverse team in an organization encourages open-mindedness and encourages the sharing of different perspectives. When working with a diverse workforce, companies must create a culture where conflicting opinions are respected and dignity is upheld.

Diversification is more than just ethnicity or culture, but also an individual's skills, strengths, weaknesses, and even experiences, all of which contribute to a diverse team and all differences are strengthened by working together. 

However, a diverse team is also a potential source of conflict and can have a disastrous impact on productivity if it is not managed properly. 



Advantages and Challenges

An organization is usually more competitive with a diverse team, as a diverse team can produce greater productivity, flexibility, and creativity, which will all lead to greater outcomes towards the team objectives. Group members from diverse backgrounds may actually influence the behaviour of the majority social group in ways that enhance and improve group thinking.

Belbin Team Roles

A Belbin 'Team Role' is one of nine clusters of behavioural attributes identified by Dr Meredith Belbin's research at Henley as being effective in order to facilitate team progress (Belbin, 2021). Belbin theory could help leaders and individuals to understand their strengths, which in turn can lead to more effective team communication and enhance the overall performance of the team. 


As shown in the above picture, there are nine Belbin team roles, however not all teams need nine members. It’s very likely that the majority of people may have more than two roles that they’re confident in, and these roles may further develop or change as time goes on. Every role has its own strengths and weaknesses, it isn't necessary for all members of a team to function at the same time. What the most important is, to ensure the leader and member are having a clear vision of the team's common goal and working toward it. 

 

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

Diversity in the workforce is on the rise, but managing a diverse team presents a number of challenges. Leadership strategies cannot be developed without the understanding of the specific behavioural patterns to a culture. The influence of different cultures in a workplace is something that needs to be aware of.  



This Hofstede Culture dimension helps to define and classify culturally influenced behaviours, giving a better understanding to the leaders of how these may impact on the values and behaviours of individuals and build up the knowledge of how to effectively communicate across cultures. 

The challenge of managing diversity is made even more difficult by our natural tendency for assuming that other people see things the same as we do. This is a perception that may cause misunderstandings and miscommunications. It’s essential for a leader to understand the different cultural behaviours, personalities and role of each team member in order to avoid conflicts and prejudices when managing a diverse team. 

 

How Diversity Plays its role in the Retail industry?  

Diversity in retail matters across leadership, workforce, workplace culture, marketing as well as from a consumer perspective (Shephard, 2019).

Diversification involves more than just diversity in the workplace, but also in the consumer market. To have a diverse team is a competitive advantage for developing innovative strategies, with a better understanding of different consumer needs, expanding the market range and even may spot issues quicker. The fact that diversity has an outstanding contribution to the company's success. 

The well-known beauty company L'Oréal operates in 130 countries over the world.  According to L’Oréal (2021), they sponsor disability awareness workshops in India, students from diverse backgrounds are paired with employees in the Netherlands and young adults in vulnerable communities in Pakistan are offered training.

The company offers a variety of diversity and inclusion training programs to all their employees worldwide. The company also ranks highly for gender equality: Women at L’Oréal account for 69 percent of the workforce and 53 percent of key positions (L'Oréal, 2021). L'Oréal has practiced a number of proactive strategies in the workplace related to diversity and multiculturalism, which have proven to be successful.  

Recommendation and Conclusion 

The organization is expected to train and support its managers and leaders so they are ready to employ a diverse workforce. It is crucial for leaders to be able to recognize and deal with their own prejudices at the first place, and develop further to be able to effectively manage a diverse team, and moreover, to understand and support their team members, to fulfil their needs, balance conflicts and respect the views of all team players. An organization can increase its productivity and creativity by giving all employees the opportunity to grow based on their performance. With a well-managed diverse team, the organization would undoubtedly benefit from enhanced productivity and profitability. 

 



References

·       Barkley, D. (2017). USING HOFSTEDE'S MODEL TO IMPROVE MULTICULTURAL MANAGEMENT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317397455_USING_HOFSTEDE%27S_MODEL_TO_IMPROVE_MULTICULTURAL_MANAGEMENT_IN_THE_EUROPEAN_UNION

·       Belbin. (2021). The Nine Belbin Team Roles. https://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles

·       Hunt, V., Layton, D. & Prince, S. (2015). Why diversity matters. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/why-diversity-matters

·       L’Oréal. (2021). Promoting Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. https://www.loreal.com/en/commitments-and-responsibilities/for-the-people/promoting-diversity-and-inclusion/

·       Mullins, L.J. (2013). Management And Organisational Behaviour.  http://www.mim.ac.mw/books/Management%20&%20Organizational%20Behaviour,%207th%20edition.pdf

·       Rock, D. and Grant, H. (2016). Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter. https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter

·       RSM Discovery. (2019). How To Effectively Manage Your Diverse Team. https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter

·       Shephard, N. (2019). How Important is Diversity for Successful Retail? https://www.brand-experts.com/brand-retail/retail-diversity/

·       Steinberg, D. (2018). Why Diverse Marketing Teams Possess A Competitive Edge. https://www.forbes.com/sites/microsoft365/2018/03/06/why-diverse-marketing-teams-possess-a-competitive-edge/?sh=5d801807ce37




Comments

  1. NG TZE MIN- LCWDecember 23, 2021 at 9:23 AM

    I agree with the theory you use, clearly shown that you have understand the whole Belbin theory. After reading many theory, i choose Belbin as well ! as in my opinion if everyone knows their roles in the organization many risk can be avoided, roles are like responsibility to me ! Overall really like your blog !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chang Tzu ShuangDecember 24, 2021 at 9:05 AM

    I also did some research on L'Oréal's actions on managing diversity, it was surprising that the company reached to many areas to support people in need and values people in their organization. The company is really worth of learning by the leaders from other companies!!

    ReplyDelete

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