Blog 2: The challenge of Managing Diverse Teams
The concept of diversity
Because of globalization, companies must employ a diverse workforce to attract highly trained and competitive employees and become competitive in the market. Leaders need to understand team growth and performance to overcome challenges and create a high-performing team.
The benefit of a diverse team
First, the benefits of diversity for creativity and invention are indisputable. By fostering an environment of inclusion and diversity, organizations can broaden their horizons, improve their problem-solving skills, and make better judgments. By embracing diversity, organizations can help employees reach their full potential. In the rapidly changing modern world, diversity is a competitive advantage (Peart, 2021).
Second, more diverse leadership teams lead to better financial success. According to a Boston Consulting Group analysis, businesses with leadership teams that are more diverse than average get the benefits of more innovation and more significant EBIT margins (Lorenzo et al., 2023).
Challenges of Diverse Culture
Communication issues and rising training costs are two of the biggest obstacles heterogeneous teams face. First, there are communication issues because the people are multinational and naturally come from multiple cultural backgrounds. These lead to diversity issues such as lack of cohesion and freedom of expression. Previous research has shown that production levels are directly affected by a lack of cohesion in varieties (Meer & Tolsma, 2014).
Another challenge is that employees frequently find it difficult to convey who they are or what they think because of their feelings and worries about other team members. Therefore, to enhance or solve workplace challenges related to diverse cultures, firms must incur more expenses for training programs, seminars, and lectures.
Tuckman’s models
Tuckman’s model focuses on teamwork, collaborative efforts among team members, and the team development process (JONES, 2019). The model is essentially built through the four stages of Forming, Storming, norming, and performing. It’s easy to identify where your team is and take the right steps to move your team into performance (FreshBooks, 2021).
Forming
Formative characteristics include being outgoing, kind, courteous in general, unsure of one’s place in the group, and displaying nervousness and curiosity. Members look upon leaders to make choices and provide guidance.
Storming
There will be disagreements among some team members. The members voiced divergent opinions on objectives, standards, positions, and responsibilities. Recognize concerns and assist in their resolution, normalize problems, and establish confidence by keeping your word.
Norming
Team members resolve disputes and collaborate to achieve team goals. Increased sense of mission and understanding of goals, more substantial confidence, engagement, and support from team members, and begins to build cohesion.
Performing
Positions become more flexible as members take on different tasks and responsibilities as needed. For the team to achieve its goals effectively, we ensure that everyone understands and respects each other. Tasks become the focus of team energy, and roles become adaptable and functional.
Benefit of Tuckman’s Model
The performance, predictability, and efficiency of teams in achieving goals can be improved with the help of Tuckman’s model (Kobiruzzaman, 2023). Tuckman’s model helps reduce conflicts among team members so that they do not hinder the achievement of team goals. Finally, the challenge of group uncertainty can be well addressed using Tuckman’s theory of group growth (Indeed Editorial Team, 2022).
Limitation of Tuckman’s Model
Although specific recommendations have been provided, not all challenges in group communication can be solved immediately (Kobiruzzaman, 2023). Likewise, there is disagreement about what exactly “storming” means, and outside of a treatment group setting, periods of “storming” are often less well defined (Render, 2019).
Diverse Culture Company
In 2022, Apple has more than 160,000 employees of different ages, genders, races and nationalities. In 2022, more than 65.9% of Apple’s new employees will come from whites and Asians, and the other 29.7% of employees will come from Black, African American, Hispanic, and Latino (Kelly Indah, 2023). While job diversity isn’t necessarily a straight line, CEO Tim Cook instructed management to apply complexity and concentrate on converting risks into opportunities. Tim Cook thinks a diverse workforce fosters leadership, interpersonal skills, and personality, which will help Apple create unique products and technologies (Podolny, 2023).
Recommendation and Conclusion
To increase innovation and team effectiveness in the workplace, I wholeheartedly recommend that CEOs use the Tuckman Model to manage their teams. Diverse teams improve employees’ decision-making and problem-solving skills, thereby increasing productivity. A leader’s strong management qualities and abilities can encourage and inspire team members to collaborate to achieve common goals. Executives overseeing heterogeneous teams should promote an open approach to reduce conflict and increase innovation and output. Therefore, the secret to organizational success is managing employee diversity.
References
FreshBooks. (2021, August 10). Tuckman’s Theory: Five Stages of Team Development. Retrieved December 3, 2023, from https://www.freshbooks.com/hub/other/tuckmans-theory
Indeed Editorial team. (2022, October 1). What is the Tuckman theory? (Plus the benefits of using it). Indeed. Retrieved December 4, 2023, from https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/what-is-the-tuckman-theory
JONES, A. (2019, August 30). THE TUCKMAN’S MODEL IMPLEMENTATION, EFFECT, AND ANALYSIS & THE NEW DEVELOPMENT OF JONES LSI MODEL ON A SMALL GROUP. JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, 6(4). https://doi.org/10.34218/jom.6.4.2019.005
Kelly Indah. (2023, April 23). HOW MANY APPLE EMPLOYEES ARE THERE IN 2024? (QUICK STATS). Earthweb. Retrieved December 4, 2023, from https://earthweb.com/apple-employees/
Kobiruzzaman, M. M. (2023, July 6). Tuckman’s Theory of Communication Stages With Advantages and Disadvantages. Newsmoor. https://newsmoor.com/tuckmans-model-five-stages-of-group-and-team-development-theory/
Lorenzo, R., Voigt, N., Tsusaka, M., Krentz, M., & Abouzahr, K. (2023, January 22). How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation. BCG Global. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/how-diverse-leadership-teams-boost-innovation
Meer, T. V. D., & Tolsma, J. (2014, July 30). Ethnic Diversity and Its Effects on Social Cohesion. Annual Review of Sociology, 40(1), 459–478. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043309
Peart, N. (2021, March 17). How Diversity And Innovation Drive Great Cultures In The Future Of Work. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliapeart/2021/03/17/how-diversity-and-innovation-drive-great-cultures-in-the-future-of-work/?sh=5d9ad6413f9b
Podolny, J. M. (2023, April 11). How Apple Is Organized for Innovation. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/11/how-apple-is-organized-for-innovation
Render, J. (2019, June 13). Tuckman’s Model – 5 Stages of Team Development and Practical Limitations. Agile-Mercurial. https://agile-mercurial.com/2019/04/16/tuckmans-model-5-stages-of-team-development-and-practical-limitations/#:~:text=The%20Limitations%20to%20Tuckman%27s%20Model,frequently%20as%20they%20are%20today.
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