How Best to Manage Team Diversity

Online Education -- Research Method Response

Diverse teams utilize diverse opinions and approaches and are generally more effective in their accomplishment of tasks. Yet "diversity appears to increase group conflict." In what ways does diversity make conflict into a positive result?

Diversity can result in positive outcomes even through the process of conflict resolution in teams. That is because the conflicts that can arise as a function of diversity within teams can bring to light important differences in perceptions and values that enhance the ability of all team members to understand points-of-view that differ from their own. This is beneficial because it increases the ability of team members and of the entire team to anticipate, plan for, and best resolve potential conflicts with other stakeholders, especially clients, in areas that the team might not have appreciated or been aware of before experiencing those types of conflicts within the team environment.

Furthermore, the process of effective conflict resolution (regardless of its origin) can be tremendously beneficial to teams. In that regard, the experience of having encountered and successfully worked through conflicts within the team originating in diversity issues strengthens the team as well.

How can the appreciation and encouragement of people to be themselves and share their thoughts result in cohesiveness and effectiveness?

Within any team, cohesiveness and effectiveness will always be greater when the individual team members all believe that they are safe to contribute their thoughts and concerns freely and without fear of pejorative judgments of others. Generally, when team members are apprehensive about contributing their true opinions and positions because they are worried about the reaction of other team members, the team suffers because many potentially important ideas may get filtered out before the team ever has the opportunity to hear them and consider them on their merits.

In principle, when the individual members of the team are afraid to be themselves, there can be no genuine cohesiveness on the team because all of the team members are playing roles within the team instead of contributing all of their ideas and opinions for open consideration by the entire team. By definition, any team in which the team members only contribute the ideas that they feel safe offering and withholding other ideas because they do not feel free or safe to share them with the team will be less effective than teams where all team members are encouraged to participate without having to worry about negative consequences for the ideas that they propose.

What are some specific things you could do or say in any group to decrease the conflict inherent in diversity and increase the productivity inherent in many minds and styles working together?