Diverse Teams Are More Likely to Carry Out Tasks in Innovative Ways - Literature review Example

Diverse teams are more likely to carry out tasks in innovative ways Name Class Unit Introduction There are six main demographic strands associated with diversity; gender, race, age, sexual orientation, religion and beliefs and lastly disability (Harrison and Sin, 2006). Globalisation has led to reliance on diverse teams in the workplace. The teams with multiple perspectives has been utilised with the aim to improve the performance. The research on the capabilities of diverse teams is divided into whether it helps the teams or harms them. Diverse teams are faced with struggles on understanding each other, trust and relating with others. This can undermine the team performance. Despite this, diverse teams have a great advantage due to their ability to possess varying perspectives and a lot of information. Murphy (1989) shows that diverse teams are also associated with firm innovation. This essay reviews the literature that helps in understanding the role of diversity in innovation. The essay critically examines the statement that diverse teams are more likely to carry out tasks in innovative ways. This statement is examined using theories and scholarly articles to show the link between innovation and diversity. Organisation relies highly on teams for sustainable business success. There has been a lot of research on how teams should be composed to ensure there is high performance. According to Post et al., (2009), innovation involves possessing the processes of creativity and original thinking. It is generation of new ideas which makes it possible to come up with new products, processes, systems and services. In relation to diversity, subjective innovation comes from cognitive diversity. In cognitive diversity, both visible and nonvisible diversity implies (Harrison and Sin, 2006). Dell'Era and Verganti (2010) assert that the ability of a diverse team to innovate is based on the ability of diverse team members to communicate their creativity to others. This is also affected by the willingness of others to listen and respond to the ideas given. The ability of a diverse team to innovate may be constrained by the form of discrimination that exists in a firm. This is due to institutional and non-institutional discrimination (Murphy, 1989). Santos, Doz and Williamson (2004), shows that the culture of inclusion also affects the ability of a diverse team to innovate. For a diverse team to be successful in implementing new tasks there is need for inclusion. An example of a firm that have managed to succeed due to diversity is IBM. IBM success in coming up with new ways of doing things is based on the ability to have diverse teams. The diverse teams have been able to enhance growth for IBM. According to IBM, the firm takes innovation and diversity as mutually dependable (Childs, 2005). With increased diversity, the firm has created new growth opportunities. Higher productivity in a firm is based on the effective functioning of teams available. A team made of diverse characteristics has the ability to come together and enhance creativity. They are capable of working better than a homogenous team. They are also able to pool a lot of ideas together which leads to better solutions. Adler (2002) was able to prove that diversity leads to positive outcomes in groups. This includes enhanced innovation and creativity. Also, when diversity is combined with knowledge on individual capabilities enhances problem solving. A study by Niebuhr (2010) found out that innovation was directly related to the level of cultural diversity. This was a study carried out in Germany where areas with higher cultural diversity had more innovation that those with lower cultural diversity. There are several ways in which diversity and innovation are linked with mind-sets, resources and personal perspectives. Like-minded people make similar decisions hence limiting innovation (Murphy, 1989). Creativity and innovation are enhanced through existence of varying mind-sets. When diverse participants meets in a context where their contributions are valued, the level of innovation is likely to rise. Through diversity, it becomes easy to make effective decisions. A diverse team has a lot of expertise and can provide more critical evaluation. Diverse teams easily access network of relationships, cultural competence and capital. These contribute positively into the innovation process (Harrison and Sin, 2006). Santos, Doz and Williamson (2004) prove that diverse teams are capable of thinking critically on issues that involve thinking on different angles. This helps to consider issues from varying perspectives to come up with innovative answers (Lee and Nathan, 2010). Despite this, the management is supposed to be given adequate time to adjust to the context. In the early stags of a diverse team, they perform poorly compared to homogenous teams. However, with time the performance of diverse team improves. The improvement in most cases leads to outperforming the homogenous teams. They are capable of coming up with highly effective work processes and increase their outcome (Dell'Era and Verganti, 2010). Research has shown that diverse teams are better in integrating diverse knowledge. With time, they are able to manage integration and avoid cases of conflict (Jayne and Dipboye, 2004). The members are able to communicate and eliminate the boundaries. This makes it possible to remove the personal boundaries and gain understanding of varying perspectives (Østergaard, Timmermans and Kristinsson, 2009). Decision making are very important in the diverse teams. This is due to fact that diverse teams have varying perspectives. The diverse perspectives help a lot in making decisions. This is due to fact that they provide a comprehensive view (Jayne and Dipboye, 2004). This is especially if there are opportunities and threats. Once the opportunities and threats have been identified, a diverse team is able to easily come up with solutions. For a diverse group, it takes more time to reach a concrete decision (Østergaard, Timmermans and Kristinsson, 2009). This is due to existence of cognitive conflict and varying viewpoints. In the knowledge based economy, firms relies more on intangible resources than tangible resources (Jayne and Dipboye, 2004). The human capital has the knowledge base which is vital for innovation. Human capital is affected by the level of diversity in employees as well as their interaction (Garnish, 1986). This makes employees diversity to act as a key in understanding the firm knowledge base (van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007). The individual employee knowledge base is highly affected by the group membership and their level of interaction. Innovation depends on the individuals in an organisation. Therefore, workers composition plays an important role to understand innovation. For innovation to occur there must be interaction among the groups (Jayne and Dipboye, 2004). This allows the team to modify, discuss and come up with new ideas. This makes diversity to contribute to innovation. The interaction and interplay within diverse competencies leads to learning in an organisation. If the team is disconnected, chances of learning are reduced (Van der Vegt & Bunderson, 2005). The level of education in the diverse team influences innovation. The level of diversity in an educated team increases the likelihood of innovation. Having highly educated and diverse team is vital for innovation. The chances are more enhanced in cases where there are different types of knowledge (van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007). Also nationality has an impact on the level of innovation. The number of nationalities present in an organisation determines the ability to innovate. For a firm to benefit from innovation in teamwork there is need to include more nationalities. Also, diversity in gender is important for task innovation. Being more diverse in terms of gender increases the level of innovation (Maurty and Harty, 1999). Having a policy that advocates for hiring from diverse background is a major chance for a firm to have diverse teams. Having such policy has been proven to increase the level of task innovation in a firm. It eliminates the chances of hiring individuals who are similar especially through referrals (Van der Vegt & Bunderson, 2005). Modern firms show the importance of diversity in their teams. Diversity is more common for innovation and business gains (Harrison and Klein, 2007). As the firms fights for the global talent, diversity and inclusion policies have been designed. Diversity in the levels of employees matters in firms’ performance. It is important to note that not all employees are involved in the innovation process. Despite this, innovation occurs in different groups in an organisation. This makes it vital to look at the composition of employees in a firm. Studies show the impact of employees’ diversity is positive on innovation (Horwitz and Horwitz, 2007). This implies that once a diverse workforce is given a task, they are likely to carry it out in an innovative way. Erickson and Gratton (2007) found out that international teams with an equal gender ratio in their work team were more innovative. This shows that internationalisation of the work team makes cultural diversity a reality which helps in innovation. An example is Hewlett Packard in their latex printing Technology. This is an innovation that was driven by use of diverse teams. The print service providers were provided with different alternative applications. It made it possible to come up with vivid and quality images while at the same time reducing the impacts on environment (van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007). This is an example that diverse teams can carry out tasks more innovatively. Peoples have varying personality traits. The different personality traits affect team ability to innovate when carrying out tasks (Jayne and Dipboye, 2004). Team members are able to access different ways of doing things in a team. They are able to come up with new ways of doing things and eliminate the negative impacts of diversity (Stirling, 2007). The ability of diverse team to innovate in a task is affected by their ability to process information. This is in turn affected by their level of motivation. The level of motivation determines how the diverse team utilises the pool of knowledge at their disposal (van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007). For diverse teams to come up with new ways, time and contact are insufficient to ensure success (Horwitz and Horwitz, 2007). The rewards available and type of task determines the success of diversity in motivation. When the task being carried out requires more cooperation team membership becomes of importance. The team design and competitiveness of task, reward system, and performance appraisal can act as a barrier to success of diversity (Stewart, 2006). Ramasamy and Yeung (2016) assert that diversity in the workplace can be looked as a paradox. This is due to fact that it can be disruptive or beneficial based on how it is managed. When well-managed, diversity leads to innovation. Management encourages innovation in a diverse team (Dawn, 1989). Leadership can ensure that there is success in a diverse team. There is need for an on-going and consistent leadership to manage diversity. This is due to fact that most barriers to diversity are systematic and ingrained in the organisation (Horwitz and Horwitz, 2007). The leader is expected to look at areas of organisation where well managed diversity leads to a better outcome. The leader is expected to manage diversity and ensures that there is innovation. This involves team building and group training that will foster inclusivity and creativity (Dawn, 1989). Through team building and training it become possible to ensure that skills and perspectives from the team lead to success (Kearney & Gebert, 2009). For most companies, innovation is diversity based. Companies have been able to come up with new ways of doing things through innovation. Despite this, there are barriers to diversity based innovation that have to be managed (Harrison and Klein, 2007). This ensures that a diverse team is capable of attaining new ways of doing tasks. This is in comparison with homogenous teams which lacks varying perspectives and ideas. The level of diversity determines the ability to come up with new ideas (Dahlin, Weingart, and Hinds, 2005). Conclusion To sum up, a diverse team is more likely to come up with new ways of doing a task. This is due to the varying perspectives and ideas that are fostered by the diverse team. A lot of organisations rely on teams for success. Research shows that creativity and innovation are positively impacted by level of diversity in a firm. As the team becomes more diverse, they are able to come up with ways of doing things through innovation. Innovation level is affected by the level of education, gender ratio, individual perspectives and inclusion. There is also need for leadership which is able to manage diversity and overcome barriers. Firms willing to come up with new ways of doing things should embrace diversity. References Adler, T.R., 2007. Swift trust and distrust in strategic partnering relationships: Key considerations of team-based designs. 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