Shemla, Meir

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10/9/2019 How To Effectively Manage Your Diverse Teamhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/rsmdiscovery/2019/10/04/how-to-effectively-manage-your-diverse-team/#4f2750462f11 1/4658 views | Oct 4, 2019, 08:38amPOST WRITTEN BYMeir Shemla is an Associate Professor in the Department of Organisation and PersonnelManagement at RSM More about Meir ShemlaHow To Effectively Manage YourDiverse TeamLeadership StrategyRSM Discovery Contributor We’re obsessed with creating diverse workforces, but when it comes to managing thadiversity, most of us fall short of the mark. A diverse team might be great on paper,people from all walks of life coming together to share new ideas. But in reality, if notmanaged well, diversity may lead to a productivity disaster. RSMdiversity10/9/2019 How To Effectively Manage Your Diverse Teamhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/rsmdiscovery/2019/10/04/how-to-effectively-manage-your-diverse-team/#4f2750462f11 2/4So, the notion that increased diversity’s automatically result in higher performance ia myth. In fact, if it’s not managed correctly, diversity is more likely to causeproblems, including employee dissatisfaction, a lack of innovation and reducedperformance.It doesn’t help that the media sometimes portrays diversity in an overly positive lighWe often hear about the outstanding benefits that organisations harvest whenincreasing their gender or ethnic diversity. Whilst this helps to paint an optimisticpicture of diversity in the workplace, it has very little to do with what we find reporteto scientific literature where diversity sometimes actually only offers minor benefitsand can even pose a serious threat to organisations.Today In: LeadershipMy research, based on a review of 20 years of academic work on diversitymanagement, suggests that when looking at the effects of diversity, we should make clear distinction between the two types of outcomes.  My studies clearly show thatthere is a vital difference between diversity for the sake of equality and diversity forthe sake of performance.This means that if the organisation’s goal is greater equality, then hiring a diverseworkforce may help solve the problem. But, if the goal is improved performance orgreater innovation, then in many cases diversity comes with a whole new set ofproblems that have to be solved.  Diversity allows people from a greater range of different backgrounds to join teamsand organisations, which theoretically sounds great. However, managers andorganisations make the mistake of believing that more equality automaticallytranslates into better performance.The issue is that the majority of diversity policies focus on how organisations canbecome more diverse rather than on how to manage that diversity, which requires awhole different set of processes and actions.  Specifically, managers who want thatdiversity to work have to solve three major problems.The first problem is that people who are different from each other often perceive,experience and understand their work very differently, which makes it harder for10/9/2019 How To Effectively Manage Your Diverse Teamhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/rsmdiscovery/2019/10/04/how-to-effectively-manage-your-diverse-team/#4f2750462f11 3/4diverse teams to work effectively together. This means that members of diverse teammay have more troubles agreeing on quite simple ideas, like how to interpret data.A second problem has to do with team cohesion. Cohesion emerges when a teamremains united while working to achieve a common goal. Being a cohesive teammeans that not only are group goals met but team members feel that they havecontributed to the overall success of the group. In teams where diversity is high, wefound that cohesion tends to be low, which means that they don’t necessarily trusteach other and more likely to have conflicts. Which as you probably know is prettydisastrous for productivity. A lack of cohesion leads to the final and gravest problem. When organisations focuson increasing diversity rather than on managing existing diversity, diverse teams areoften found to collaborate less effectively and are reluctant to exchange and shareideas. This is crucial, as theoretically the only reason that diverse teams shouldoutperform non-diverse teams is because they have a greater range of views,experiences and opinions. Anything that stops information sharing, in essencesabotages the benefits of that diversity.So, what can a manager or organisation do to solve these three problemsFirstly, you need to encourage team identification. High team identification is whenmembers identify themselves as part of a group and feel proud to be a part of it,employees feel that they are not working against each other, but for the same team,the same future, goals and vision. My research has found that whether you seediversity as a positive or negative depends on how you identify with the team as awhole. The higher the collective team identification, the more likely team membersfeel positively about diversity and are therefore more collaborative and successful.But to do this, managers need to make sure that people are not merely members ofdifferent social categories such as gender or race, but to emphasise the distinctiveneof each individual. It is not enough to just aim for diversity or ‘equal representation’.Instead, managers need to think about how people feel about their differences.I guess the paradox is that the practices which have helped increase diversity andsatisfy the need for greater equality, are the same ones that hinder organisations fromreaping the benefits of all that diversity. However, if you follow these relatively simp10/9/2019 How To Effectively Manage Your Diverse Teamhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/rsmdiscovery/2019/10/04/how-to-effectively-manage-your-diverse-team/#4f2750462f11 4/4We are one of Europe’s top 10 research-based business schools, providing ground-breakingresearch and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management. We ar... Read Moresteps you can really make a difference to your employees’ lives and shape the effect odiversity for the greater good.RSM Discovery

How To Effectively Manage Your Diverse Team

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