Blog2-The Challenge of Managing Diverse Teams

The Challenge of Managing Diverse Teams

According to research, diverse teams produce better results when well-led and coordinated. It is the mandate of leaders to ensure that they bring people from different cultures, backgrounds, religious orientations, and generations together for a common purpose. Employing people from different backgrounds not only brings about ideas and competence but also creates diversity within the workplace. These diverse ideas, work ethics, and business strategies provide businesses with the right environment and attitude to thrive and meet their goals. Through understanding the diversity and competence of diversity in the organizational setup, employers can attain a competitive advantage over their competitors. This essay strives to analyze the challenges of managing diverse teams within the organizational setups. 

Part 1

Leaders are tasked with the mandate of embracing a diversified approach and managing the diversity of skills to improve the efficiency of the workforce through a continuous revolution. Team theory, on the other hand, states that every team member must contribute to ensure that there is the success of the entire team (Brett, Behfar & Kern, 2020). The team theory enables leaders to effectively supervise, monitor, and motivate their teams for them to determine the different ways that they can assist their followers. In the modern business world, diversity refers to the way in which an organization thinks and innovates. Diversity further points out how the organization treats its employees before making profits. Furthermore, this theory comes up with a conclusive and functional strategy on how leaders can best monitor and strategize their teams' decisions to get the desired results and outcomes (Colbert et al., 2012). The team theory further gives a conflicting outlook in the turn of events as the leaders are often faced with the tough decision of monitoring the progress of their teams or taking corrective actions to improve their team's performances. 

A real-time example of the team theory is when George, a systems manager at Apple Inc., is in a weekly meeting with his staff members. When an issue is raised by Bonney, his subordinate, during the meeting, George brushes it off and concentrates on other things (Mysirlaki & Paraskeva, 2020). As a result of George's reaction, Bonney will not bring up the issue in the future, and hence this will lead to an unresolved problem such as the loss of a potential customer. 

Another example of good leadership, as demonstrated by the team theory, is the case of Ceasar, who is dealing with a lot of family challenges. However, upon entry into the work premises, Ceasar takes 5 minutes on himself every morning and later goes into the office (Mysirlaki & Paraskeva, 2020). His colleagues are appreciative of the fact that he is calm and collected during work hours despite the storms going on in his life. 

Some advantages of the team theory include better communication because of the presence of only one manager supervising multiple teams. This leads to a free flow of communication and ideas. There is also a quicker problem resolution strategy (Brett, Behfar & Kern, 2020). The workforce under team theory is often flexible and empowered due to the maximization of talent and skills. There is increased competition which in turn increases and improves productivity. 

The limitations and disadvantages of the team theory are that there is the presence of personality differences within the team, and this can adversely affect the harmony and efficiency that exists within the team (Adidas Group, 2017). Some employees work better on their own and hence are not team players making it difficult for them to perform in teams. Some employees underperform and hide behind the performance of the team. Another challenge of the team theory is that it is resistant to change and leads to an increase in conflict (Adidas Group, 2017). This model of management is resistant to change, and this hurts productivity. 

 Part 2

The ability to manage a diverse team is the most important element for Adidas, which is among the most successful sports brands in the world. To uphold its place as one of the most successful sports brands globally, Adidas ought to embrace diversity in terms of culture, work ethics, management, and even language for the free flow of ideas. Adidas thrives in managing diverse teams as it has created a culture of uniqueness where every individual can cultivate a culture of belonging. Through diversifying its staff and ideas, Adidas has managed to meet most of the goals it has set and maintained its organizational culture for many years. 

Recommendations and Conclusion

Managing diverse teams is a complex and time-consuming exercise that ought to be analyzed and explored to create functional teams. Employers should not have favourites as this will make them ignore the potential of the other employees and their contributions. The employers should incorporate the team theory, which will enable them to bring forth a clear platform for giving back feedback. The management should also use social tools that will, in turn, promote an open-door policy which will further improve the communication pattern and structure within the organization. Despite cultural diversity, it is necessary to build a common workplace culture and address all the emerging conflicts. 

For organizational to be complete and fully functional, they ought to incorporate diversity in their teams. The team theory further claims that leaders should not only embrace diversity in their teams but should also ensure a smooth flow of work amidst the diversity. Managers ought to capitalize on the advantages of diversity and address the limitations and disadvantages for them to have functional and complete teams. 

References

Adidas Group (2017).Employees Diversity and Inclusion. available from <https://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/people/employees/#/vielfalt-und-inklusion/&gt; [5 October 2017].

Brett, J., Behfar, K., & Kern, M. (2020). Managing multicultural teams (pp. 155-164). Routledge.

Colbert, A. E., Judge, T. A., Choi, D., & Wang, G. (2012). Assessing the trait theory of leadership using self and observer ratings of personality: The mediating role of contributions to group success. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(4), 670-685.

Mysirlaki, S., & Paraskeva, F. (2020). Emotional intelligence and transformational leadership in virtual teams: Lessons from MMOGs. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.