Does Team Diversity Improve Performance - Book Report/Review Example

?Literature Review: Does Team Diversity Improve Performance? Discuss With Reference To Key Academic Studies In This Area Table of Contents Introduction 3 Literature Review: Does Team Diversity Improve Performance? 5 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction The term ‘team diversity’ signifies the prevailing considerable uniqueness of every individual on a particular team. Team diversity has emerged as one of the pertinent and inevitable constituents in the modern day organisational environment. It facilitates to assimilate an assortment of different skills and competencies based individuals in a particular team. In this regard, the facet of bio-demographic diversity at the group level has been noted to be a major consideration. This kind of diversity incorporates gender, work, experience, culture, age, ethical heritage, geographic location, region, thinking style, family status and communication style among others. However, at the present time, team diversity has been determined to be a concerning issue for the human resources department of an organisation regarding whether the venture is a fruitful one for the organisation or not. For this reason, from the last few decades enormous researches have been conducted to observe the effect of team diversity on team outcomes. Therefore, an analysis would be conducted to find out the pros and cons of workplace team diversity. Team diversity is designed to improve the ability of the employees to engage and interact more effectively among the various team members. Therefore, they can share their knowledge, collective behaviour, perception and concerns with the different team members and the team members also can provide individual feedbacks as well as gain knowledge about the characteristics and values of high performing teams. As per the research report of Salas & et. al., (2008) on team diversity, it was determined that 74% of the employees are very happy regarding this process and they are willing to work more. This is because it creates a work environment that helps everyone to reach their complete potential along with providing multiple approaches on problem solving, boosting employee morale, reducing employee complaints as well as grievances and improving dedication about their job (Salas & et. al., 2008). On the other hand, it does also require highlighting the fact that there are certain core functions in the industry where the function of diversity any how cannot work optimistically. This owing to the reason, there are certain functions where core knowledge is required for effectively performing a task. Contextually, it can be noted that the success of the diversity definitely depends on the job function of the team members i.e. whether it is independent variable or dependent variable of work (Horwitz & Horwitz, 2009). Based on overall analysis on this point, undeniably, it can be argued that team diversity is a positive and successful method. This is because owing to the influence of globalisation now-a-days worldwide competition in the business sector has taken a rigorous shape. Therefore, to sustain in this dynamic business world multi-skill of the employee is required to face any adverse situation of the business. Besides, it helps to improve the productivity, build an efficient skilful human resource and reduce production cost among others. In addition, team diversity is also very effective with regard to the marketing sector to improve the customer relationship to create loyal customers and increase the market size as well as potentiality. With these considerations, the essay intends to conduct a literature review on the statement i.e. “Does team diversity improve performance?” Literature Review: Does Team Diversity Improve Performance? According to Pope (n.d.), how to improve the team performance is one of the most challenging aspects because it immensely depends on the factors such as productivity, innovation and meeting the deadline of the assigned activities. Team diversity facilitates to do multifunctional activities by an individual employee by creating an interactive learning environment. In recent years, global competition has caused many organisations to reduce their head counts to minimise the cost on the way towards gaining competitive edge. This is because cognitive diversity among heterogeneous members endorses creativity, innovation and easy solution of any problem (Pope, n.d.). Reflecting on the course of interest in the teamwork among the modern organisations, an effective theory and model of teamwork has been discovered by Kolodny & Kiggundu (1980) which is ‘Socio-technical systems theory’. As per the socio-technical perspective on knowledge management, there are four important perspectives regarding theoretical, experimental and considerations determinants. The key concepts are firstly, organising the groups rather than individuals; secondly redundancy of the function rather than redundancy of the parts, thirdly self-regulation of the team members, lastly designing a least critical organisation and team structure. Regarding team diversity aspect, it can be reviewed that this is a holistic approach which highlights the intermingling of social along with technical factors among the working people in the organisation. It also underlines the complex relations between the subjective perspective and the objective characteristic of the work process. Therefore, it is very helpful regarding the information outflow and the communication among the various team members (Pan & Scarbrough, 1999). On the facet of team diversity Trist & Bamforth (1951) proposed a theory of ‘group process and productivity’. Diversity among the teams is often portrayed as an affirmative force leading to efficient operation among the team. Diversity often helps to lead to take superior divergences of creativity, ideas and innovation which generate to augment team performance. Research on the process of group diversity is focused on the forms of distinction in the age, education, function, experience, performance and technical background. Group process is used to predict strategic agreement. The formulation of strategic harmony between top management team and group process is immensely established as one of the best processes in the strategic formation. However, the central question of this study is diversity among group members. This term mainly refers to the concurrence and extends beyond amid the individual team members and psychological representation of strategy (Horwitz, 2005). Thus, it can be deliberately highlighted that each high level management of every organisation always researches on their human power for the maximum utilisation of the resources to increase the productivity. This includes comprehensiveness among the group strategic decision making process. Therefore, the central argument behind this study is that the group process provides greater efficiency i.e. facilitates in reducing cost and increasing productivity or ascertaining greater effectiveness i.e. providing help to take better decisions. In this regard, Amason (1996) stated it as an interpersonal conflict that relates with emotional and personal relationships among the team members. However, on the other hand, Jehn (1995) stated that team diversity creates a harmful impact in terms of group satisfaction and decision making process. Regarding this, he further stated that interpersonal conflict can arise within the team due to this process (Knight & et. al., 1999). Thus, with reference to team diversity from the viewpoint of different authors it can be found that this process is undoubtedly very effective for the large organisations to compete in the global market, but the effect on the small organisations is quite unclear in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness. Gladstein (1984) on the aspect of team diversity provided the theory of Input-Process-Output (IPO) model. Regarding this, he clearly showed the process of input and output method of the organisation. As per his theory, the individual inputs are technical skill, problem solving skill, diversity of the experience, social skills and motivation among others. The environmental inputs of an organisation are environmental needs, professional perspective, organisational purpose and environmental constraints. After this input process, then comes in the point of organisational support and group process on these factors. The facet of organisational support depends on clear performance standards, agenda and feedback, information system, training process, reward and reorganisation, employee empowerment along with providing teaching for any mistake instead of blaming. Subsequently, the author explains the factors relating to group process i.e. mission, vision and objective of the group, individual support along with maintaining proper communication flow among the various channels, task and social reflexivity, keeping records of the individual and team performance, maintaining cultural harmony, commitment of learning participation and decision making. Finally, with the mingling of all the inputs and processes, the final result as an output generates in the organisation. The output of the organisation include production, task and service deliverable, achieving the standard of benchmark, providing innovative solutions, ensuring group development, individual growth, group stability as along with sustaining performance improvement (Ilgen & et. al., 2005). Therefore, it is determined that the Input-Process-Output (IPO) model is a dominant approach to understand and explain the diversity based team performance as well as is a continuous method to exert a strong influence on the team. This is because inputs are the conditions that prevail before group activity, while the processes can be determined as the communication amid the team members as well as outputs are the consequences of group actions that are appreciated by the team or the organisation. Conclusion From the overall review of varied literatures in relation to team diversity, it is determined that the approach holds a number of positive outcomes for enhancing organisational performance in the long run. Different authors have pointed out that group activity based on diverse skills of the employees facilitates to render superior results for an organisation. In terms of the implications for management practice, it can be said that management of an organisation can leverage varied benefits from diverse skills of workforce which in turn can enable to attain competitive advantage. This discussed area can be determined to be a fruitful factor for further study in future as in the multicultural society the need for diverse workforce in increasing everyday. Thus, almost all the organisations need to inculcate team diversify prospect in their approach to attain greater benefits. References Amason, A. C., 1996. Distinguishing the Effects of Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict on Strategic Decision Making: Resolving a Paradox for Top Man-Agreement Teams. Academy of Management Journal. Vol. 3, pp. 123–148. Gladstein, D., 1984. Groups in Context: A Model of Task Group Effectiveness. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 29, pp. 499–518. Horwitz, K., 2005. The Compositional Impact of Team Diversity on Performance: Theoretical Considerations. Human Resource Development Review. [Online] Available at: ftp://68.140.79.6/AiDisk_a1/Soris/Masters/COM526/Team%20Paper/TeamDiversityImpactOnPerformance.pdf [Accessed May 04, 2013]. Horwitz, K. & Horwitz, B., 2009. The Effects of Team Diversity on Team Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review of Team Demography. Journal of Management. Vol. 33 pp- 987-1010. Ilgen, R. & et. al., 2005. Teams In Organizations: From Input-Process-Output Models To IMOI Models. Annual Review of Psychology, pp. 517-543. Jehn, K. A., 1995. A Multi Method Examination of the Benefits and Detriments of Intra-Group Conflict. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 40, pp. 256–282. Kolodny, H. F. & Kiggundu, M. N., 1980. Towards The Development of a Sociotechnical Systems Models in Woodlands Mechanical Harvesting. Human Relations, Vol. 33, No. 9, pp.623-645. Knight, D. & et. al., 1999. Top Management Team Diversity, Group Process, and Strategic Consensus. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 20, pp-445-465. Pope, G., No Date. Workplace Diversity: The Team Advantage. How Do We Improve Team Performance, Increase Productivity, Innovation And The Bottom-Line. [Online] Available at: https://diversityuniversity.com/uploads/press/Team_Advantage_-_DiversityU.pdf [Accessed May 04, 2013]. Pan, L. & Scarbrough, H., 1999. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management. Knowledge Management in Practice. Vol.11, No.3, pp-359-364. Salas, E. & et. al., 2008. Does Team Training Improve Team Performance? A Meta-Analysis. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Vol. 50, pp. 903–933. Trist, E. L. &Bamforth, K.W., 1951. Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Long Wall Method of Coal-Getting. Human Relations, Vol. 4, pp.3-38. Read More