Blog 2: The Challenge of Managing Diverse Teams

With the advent of the era of globalization, in the complex business environment, we need a variety of labor force. But there are advantages and disadvantages of diversified teams, and this blog will be used to analyze diversified teams. Its advantages lie in the following three points. First, language diversity. An employee with two languages can expand market revenue and job opportunities through his own native language. For example, if a multinational company is going to expand its market in China, they will hire a Mandarin speaking employee to communicate with the Chinese market, so as to stimulate the purchase intention and the success probability of the transaction in the Chinese market(CULCEVATAN 2017). Second, improve creativity. Due to the diversity of the team and their different cultures, they have different understanding and interpretation of "beauty", so that the company can have more innovative ideas. Finally, productivity has been increased as a result of increased competitiveness. Due to the diversity of the team, there will be many excellent employees, leading to the enhancement of the competitiveness of the team. This will motivate employees to work more actively and need to work together to achieve a common goal, thus improving productivity. There are three disadvantages of diversified teams. First, managers don't understand the differences in cultural values. Most managers and companies lack experience in managing cultural differences. Many managers do not understand the motivation of some individual members in time when facing the employees of diversified teams. As a result, supervisors are used to and like to work with employees with similar values, so they will ignore these individual employees in some ways(ALLE Ceambur 2020). Second, discrimination and stereotypes. In many companies, there will be gender discrimination against women. Connor (2015) found that 31% of women will be discriminated against at work, while men have better opportunities (ALLE Ceambur 2020). Third, there is a lack of appropriate training programs for ethnic minorities and women. Many companies don't have achieved diversify training programs. Only a few women and ethnic minorities have opportunities for promotion and training. Fortune magazine (2006) found that only 2% of the CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies are women (ALLE Ceambur 2020). Diversification has become a major recruitment plan in many automotive industries. It can not only retain more talents, but also help to enhance the creativity and innovation of the company. Moreover, it is the right way to effectively manage diversified teams and learn to treat and tolerate all gender, age, race and ethnicity equally. It turns out that diversification is also the best way to promote innovation. Through the research of the center for talent innovation (CTI), we found that, the proportion of diversified companies' innovation reports increased by 70%, and the market share increased by about 45%(Omer Keilaf 2018). For the automotive industry, especially in this revolutionary period, it has experienced a period of transformation. For example, Henry Ford brought us its T-type assembly line, which is a new type of car. With the development of auto driving, clean energy is becoming more and more important; The popularization of car sharing; And digital tools that dealers can use, such as machine learning and voice assistant (Cynthia Hiskes 2018). These alternative travel and the rapid development of the same field are the pressure on enterprises, so enterprises have to carry out innovation in all aspects. Therefore, it is very important to manage a diversified team. General Motors Company (GM) is a large automobile manufacturer in the United States. Today, general motors is famous for making many popular American cars, such as Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac. GM adopts four management principles: planning, organization, leadership and control, to ensure the best creativity and innovation (PapersOwl 2019). When a company does not have a clear goal and purpose, it can regard diversity and inclusiveness as a simple business goal. Gender diversity and open culture will help the company to do a stronger business (Anita Ann Babu 2018). Actively hiring and promoting more women can help you avoid gender imbalances and a culture of gender discrimination. There has been no difference in the leadership of successful leaders, men and women. However, merit based systems often reward men's potential and achievement of women. Sandberg said that can only change if we have more women in power(Anita Ann Babu 2018). When colleagues and customers are diversified, they not only have the opportunity to learn and appreciate the different visions and new ideas brought by the cultures of other countries. These different ideas and innovations will be integrated into and as part of the core information and products of the enterprise, and can effectively understand and learn the differences between different cultures. When an enterprise is carrying out diversification, its value will increase greatly both in society and profit.

 

Referencing:

1.CULCEVATAN (2017) THE CHALLENGE OF MANAGING DIVERSE TEAMS [online] available from <https://culcevatan.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/the-challenge-of-managing-diverse-teams/> [12 April 2021]

2. Omer Keilaf (2018) Why Diversity is Crucial to Innovation in the Automotive Industry[online] available from <https://www.fierceelectronics.com/components/why-diversity-crucial-to-innovation-automotive-industry> [13 April 2021]

3. Cynthia Hiskes (2018) Why the Automotive Industry Needs Diversity[online] available from <https://www.cbtnews.com/why-the-automotive-industry-needs-diversity/> [13 April 2021]

4. PapersOwl (2019) DIVERSITY AT GENERAL MOTORS MANAGING [online] available from <https://papersowl.com/examples/diversity-at-general-motors-managing-diversity/> [14 April 2021]  

5. Anita Ann Babu (2018) HR Challenges: 3 Real-Life Examples That Will Transform Your Diversity Practices [online] available from <https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/hr-challenges-diversity/> [14 April 2021] 

6. ALLE Ceambur (2020) The Challenge of Managing a Diverse Team [online] available from <https://alexandraceambur.com/2016/10/24/the-challenge-of-managing-diverse-teams/> [14 April 2021]