Managing Multicultural Teams - Research Paper Example

Managing Multicultural Teams

Introduction

In an increasingly globalized world, it is necessary for managers to take issues of diversity management seriously. Diversity in organisations can be both beneficial and harmful, which is why it is important to take action proactively. Among the theories that have been suggested for handling diversity, the most significant ones include institutional theory, resource based theory, the practitioner or consultant approach, the mainstream approach and, the critical approaches (McMahon, 2010). The cultural differences across nations become crucial in the workplace.

The paper analyses different ways of conceptualizing the problem of managing diversity. The examples of Google and Facebook have been used for the analysis. Both are major multinational companies that have diverse workforces. After thorough analysis, the suggestion has been made that companies should make small decision-making teams within the minority groups to handle diversity more effectively.

Review of Literature

Various theoretical approaches to solve issues of diversity exist among scholars. According to Mazur (2010), the institutional theory of diversity management suggests that companies respond according to institutionalized rules and regulations. These laws are put in place by official bodies, which can be either governmental or private. The rationale behind this approach is that if the rules for avoiding prejudices and biases are to be removed, they have to be done by adoption of formal regulations. This is integrated with the concept of scientific and bureaucratic management. Shore et al (2009) point out that organizations that adhere to this approach typically do so out of compulsion rather than a genuinely felt urge to manage diversity. This is also usually imposed on all the employees in a top-down manner, with little effort to involve them in the decisions.

A more refined approach towards managing diversity is the resource based model of diversity management. As per this theory, the firm recognizes its employees as resources hence, it is in the interest of the firm to increase their efficiency (Shore et al, 2009). Employees work in teams and so efficiency cannot be improved only at an individual level. Attention has to be given to the level of comfort that exists among the employees of different racial, gender or ethnic backgrounds. By actively seeking to improve the cohesion among them, the management will improve the productivity of the team (Roberge and Van Dick, 2010). An added advantage of multicultural teams is that people from different backgrounds will bring more ideas to the table. Multiple perspectives on solving a problem will be on offer, which will give the companies to reduce transaction and opportunity costs.

A closely related approach is known as the consultant or practitioner model of dealing with diversity. According to this theory, proper management of personnel is possible only if difference is recognised (McMahon, 2010). The image of the company to the outside world will improve greatly if diversity is respected. The recruiters will be able to attract the best talent from across the social spectrum. People from minority backgrounds and marginalized genders like women should be promoted. The firm will also be able to retain employees more easily as they will be satisfied with an equitable and non-discriminatory workplace (D.W. Sue and D. Sue, 2012). Shareholders will also have increased confidence in the firm because of the progressive actions like affirmative action (D.W. Sue and D. Sue, 2012). Greater diversity at the workplace makes the organizational culture more similar to the consumer base. This provides a better understanding of the consumers.

Several criticisms of these theoretical frameworks have been provided. Nielsen (2010) opines that these critical approaches to diversity suggest that describing the workforce as multicultural can inadvertently make employees even more conscious of the cultural differences with their co-workers. Even self-categorization can be problematic, as identities are socially constructed realities. Besides, widely held prejudices can be bolstered even more in the process of recognizing differences. Attributing certain characteristics to people of different cultural background can put enormous pressure on individual members of those groups who deviate from the perceived norm (Nielsen, 2010). Moreover, the ideas of managing diversity are mostly of Western origin. These perspectives may be inadequate in today’s context when there are a growing number of workers from the developing countries. A proposed solution to this problem is that the management should not try to follow any fixed blueprint. Instead of dividing work based on preconceived notions of cultural differences, teams should be sensitized about possibilities of difference arising due to multiple factors, of which nationality is only one.

Case Studies

Facebook

Facebook is one of the leading IT companies of the world. It has a workforce that consists of Hispanic, White, Indian and the Chinese people of all genders and sexual orientations. The company has also been criticized for the perceived lack of diversity. This is apparent from the predominantly white male workforce, whether in its technical or non-technical teams (Feloni, 2016). The company has routinely reviewed its attempt to respond to this criticism. It hired a famous diversity trainer named Maxine Williams who had previously earned reputation for taking a law firm to number one position in terms of diversity (Williams, 2017). Facebook claims that it takes an open approach while handling diversity. It encourages its workers to start discussing issues of cultural diversity without holding back opinions for fear of retribution. All the employees of the organisation are asked to give a test called implicit association test on their opinions regarding people of different cultures. Even the senior managers of the firm have to appear for this test. The discussion of the results of this test can lead to introspection and refutation of popularly held biases. The company has also specific internal programs like Be the Ally and Managing Inclusion to reduce bias that may creep in unconsciously (Feloni, 2016). The company also has introduced the Diverse Slate Approach in 2015, which attempted to ensure that people from diverse backgrounds would be interviewed during the hiring process (Williams, 2017). Facebook’s management believes that there is no point denying the existence of prejudices in society. This concern is reflected in their active intervention in campuses where they provide training on diversity to young people. Facebook has partnered with McKinsey to launch a program called Techprep to attract minorities who are underrepresented in computer science. The company has named this program Facebook University (Williams, 2017).

Google

Like Facebook, Google has also massive international presence. The company was one of the first to release a report that gave statistics about the level of diversity in its workforce (Google, 2014). The report revealed that most of the people working at Google are whites. In the gender dimension too, the company was found lacking as only 30% of its workforce are women. The firm, however, had bluntly agreed that diversity continued to be an area of concern. It believes that diversity can be brought about by focusing on hiring policies and inclusive practices within the organization and reducing discrimination in the education system. Google is taking help from David Drummond who is the chief law officer for the firm Alphabet (McGirt, 2017). David and his team have the task of making the employees in Google more conscious about race-related issues. The company is of the opinion that customers always respond better to a fresh face within the company (McGirt, 2017). It seems that the firm is upholding the resource based theory as well as the critical consultant approach as it tries to improve its image among consumers by increasing diversity. Many of its employees have undergone training on dealing with internally held prejudices. However, the company’s experience shows that just discussing about diversity is not enough, as the commitment has to be shown in the products and services on offer. The search engine firm was in the spotlight when a new photo-based search application accidentally tagged black individuals as gorillas (McGirt, 2017). In yet another incident, the search engine returned pages of holocaust deniers at the very top of the results page when information about the Nazi-led Jewish massacre was sought by a writer (McGirt, 2017). The management at Google can avoid such incidents if they make their team more diverse, since more perspectives will make the evaluation of the products more holistic before formal launch.

Conclusion and Recommendation

The above discussion shows that theories of diversity management find real life application but with some reservations. For instance, Google’s experience with its products shows the importance of involving non-white members in the team. Facebook’s experiences show that existing hiring policies may not be good enough for the improvement of diversity. Both the companies need to involve people from diverse backgrounds in their hiring teams. This will reduce the inherent biases that may be present in dominant groups. The efforts at sensitizing the employees is indeed a good step forward, but it should be acknowledged that training on diversity may not be successful straight away. To reduce prejudices having influence on the cultural makeup of a company, the management needs to ensure that representation of marginalized communities becomes a reality. The theories on diversity management should be updated based on the emerging empirical data on various strategies adopted by companies.

Reference List

Feloni, R., 2016. Here's everything Facebook is doing this year to address its 'pathetic' diversity numbers. [online] Business Insider India. Available at: <http://www.businessinsider.in/Heres-everything-Facebook-is-doing-this-year-to-address-its-pathetic-diversity-numbers/articleshow/50657971.cms> [Accessed 1 November 2017].

Google, 2014. Getting to work on diversity at Google. [online]. Available at: < https://googleblog.blogspot.in/2014/05/getting-to-work-on-diversity-at-google.html> [Accessed 1 November 2017].

Mazur, B., 2010. Cultural diversity in organisational theory and practice. Journal of Intercultural Management, 2(2), pp.5-15.

McGirt, E., 2017. Google Searches its Soul. [online] Fortune. Available at: < http://fortune.com/google-diversity/> [Accessed 1 November 2017].

McMahon, A.M., 2010. Does workplace diversity matter? A survey of empirical studies on diversity and firm performance, 2000-09. Journal of Diversity Management, 5(2), p.37.

Nielsen, S., 2010. Top management team diversity: A review of theories and methodologies. International Journal of Management Reviews, 12(3), pp.301-316.

Roberge, M.É. and Van Dick, R., 2010. Recognizing the benefits of diversity: When and how does diversity increase group performance? Human Resource Management Review, 20(4), pp.295-308.

Shore, L.M., Chung-Herrera, B.G., Dean, M.A., Ehrhart, K.H., Jung, D.I., Randel, A.E. and Singh, G., 2009. Diversity in organizations: Where are we now and where are we going? Human Resource Management Review, 19(2), pp.117-133.

Sue, D.W. and Sue, D., 2012. Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Williams, M., 2017. Facebook Diversity Update: Building a More Diverse, Inclusive Workforce. [online] Facebook Newsroom. Available at: <https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/08/facebook-diversity-update-building-a-more-diverse-inclusive-workforce/> [Accessed 1 November 2017].