Discussion 1: Managing Diverse Teams

Discussion 1: Managing Diverse Teams

 

For the last half-century, the workforce in the United States has been undergoing tremendous demographic changes. For example, in 2009 women accounted for almost 48% of American workforce, compared to 37% in 1970 (Barsh & Yee, 2011). Additionally, workers under the age of 44, and those most likely to be in school, college, or professional training, are more ethnically and racially diverse than ever before (Policy Alert, 2005). This is only diversity of gender, race, and ethnicity; consider how managers today must also lead increasingly diverse teams in terms of age, experience, nationality, geographic location, and even diversity of thinking styles. Contemporary businesses draw employees from a more diverse pool of talent than ever before. To be successful, top managers must understand how to develop and lead diverse teams.

Managing a group composed of individuals with unique cultures, backgrounds, personalities, and abilities can be a daunting task. As a manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that team and group interactions are successful. As you review the Learning Resources this week to prepare for your Discussion posting, think about how you define diversity and diversity affects teams. Pay particular attention to the media resource, “Will Differences Doom the Team,” which presents some of the challenges managers face when leading a diverse team, and consider the key competencies managers must possess to effectively manage a diverse team. As you prepare for your post, consider what diversity means for you and how the diversity you have encountered in your professional experience have impacted how the team functions.

With these thoughts in mind:

By Day 3

Post your response that includes the following:

• Explain the types of diversity you have encountered in your professional experience and the challenges that each type of diversity posed to a team’s performance. Include in your explanation how a manager can leverage a team’s diversity to improve its performance.
• Explain the challenges posed by managing, and working within, a diverse team. In your explanation, include how managers should motivate individuals within a diverse team environment who are likely to have differing, and at times, clashing priorities.

equired Readings

Document: Week 6 Weekly Briefing (PDF)

 

The Weekly Briefing provides an essential introduction to the content and concepts that you will be studying during the week. After viewing the weekly Introduction, the Weekly Briefing should be your initial reading each week.

Berry, G. R. (2011). Enhancing effectiveness on virtual teams. Journal of Business Communication, 48(2), 186–206.

In this article, Berry argues that fundamental team dynamics do not change when teams interact virtually. He reviews these fundamentals, examines how managing virtual teams can be a more complex task than managing face-to-face teams, and shares the skill set that managers need to work with virtual teams.

DeRosa, D. (2009). Virtual success: The keys to effectiveness in leading from a distance. Leadership in Action, 28(6), 9–11.

In this article, DeRosa succinctly lists the challenges of leading virtual teams and what managers must do to make these teams more effective.

Dewar, T. (2006). Virtual teams—Virtually impossible? Performance Improvement, 45(5), 22–25.

Communications technology has certainly made working across distances easier, but does it make teamwork any easier? In this article, Dewar examines how technology both facilitates and complicates teamwork. She also discusses research-based suggestions to improve teamwork for virtual teams.

Emelo, R., & Francis, L. M. (2002). Virtual team interaction. T+D, 56(10), 17–19.

In this article, Emelo and Francis discuss how virtual teammates can develop and enhance communication behaviors. The authors contend these behaviors will make the virtual team more collaborative and effective.

Lindner, R. & O’Brien, D. (2019). The Global Virtual Teams Project: Learning to manage team dynamics in virtual exchange. In A. Turula, M. Kurek, & T. Lewis (Eds.), Telecollaboration and virtual exchange across disciplines: In service of social inclusion and global citizenship (pp. 81-89). Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2019.35.943

Mockaitis, A. I., Rose, E. L., & Zettinig, P. (2012). The power of individual cultural values in global virtual teams. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management. 12(2), 193–210.

Culture, while not visually distinguishable in many virtual work teams, still influences the team dynamic. The authors examine the relationship between culture and team dynamics in a virtual environment.

Murashev, D. (2018). Communication for diverse teams. Training Journal, 23–25.

 

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