Cultural assessment tools and leadership in diverse teams

Leading a diverse team presents numerous opportunities and challenges. With effective leadership, strong communication, and cultural competency, this diverse group can remain highly productive and contribute to meeting organizational goals. Improving the overall organizational culture, a diverse group can help deliver creative solutions to persistent problems. However, the group and its leaders also need to implement the cultural assessment tools available and honestly self-assess during times of crisis. Cultural Assessment Tools An abundance of cultural assessment tools are available, including The Cultural Competency Standards and Audit Tool (a.k.a.”the Tool”), and the Multicultural Counseling Inventory (MCI). Although some members of the team might find personal inventories intrusive and a waste of time, being thrust into a new working environment might change their perspectives. Cultural assessment and competency tools can be used to measure each employee’s readiness to work in a diverse team, revealing potential points of weakness. When implemented judiciously by human resources, these tools can help effectively strategize teams that will work together best based on their personality profiles and their performance on cultural assessment tools (Transcultural Care Associates, n.d.). Assessment tools should ideally be administered regularly, with the results used to guide best practices in management. Members from Greece, Singapore, Germany, Iran, and the United States represent a panoply of different cultures, with tremendous learning opportunities for all team members. Ideally, the joining together of this diverse group of people “will lead to an increase in the variety of perspectives and approaches brought to a problem and to opportunities for knowledge sharing, and hence lead to greater creativity and quality of team performance,” (Mannix & Neale, 2005, p. 31). In fact, the act of leading diverse teams improves overall organizational structure by enhancing the leader’s effectiveness to resolve conflict. Research from Denmark shows “leading diverse teams strengthens leaders’ competencies within communication, relationship building and talent development and ensures inclusion,” (Holck & Andersen, 2017, p. 1). Even when our diverse teams are virtual teams, their cultural backgrounds enhance their ability to share unique knowledge rather than approaching a problem using the same frameworks or paradigms. Cultural assessment tools like The Tool and the MCI will help reveal how our team can and should be structured, which communications styles and leadership models will work best to motivate members, and how to capitalize on team strengths. Leadership Style My personal leadership style and techniques will be influenced by the social and cultural diversity of this group. I look forward to meeting all group members, and believe that we can overcome some of the potential pitfalls of diverse teams such as communication breakdowns. One of the factors that has been shown to correlate with effective and productive diverse teams is consideration. Also construed as respect, consideration for others, for individuality, autonomy, and diversity, promotes social harmony. As Homan & Greer (2013) found in their empirical studies, “leader consideration can address the negative group processes that result from categorization processes in diverse teams as well as influence the perceptions of the team’s diversity,” (p. 105). The leader is a role model whose attitudes and communication styles will model other group behavior, setting a standard for respect, empathy, and tolerance. I will employ a transformational leadership style, which empowers each employee to perform through intrinsic motivation. Inspired by cultural diversity, I will be eager to learn about how group dynamics will unfold among people from countries as disparate as the United States, Iran, Greece, Germany, and Singapore. Eliminating stereotypes is a primary consideration, and I intend to set a zero tolerance policy for microaggressions and any sign of negativity. Increasingly, evidence shows that poor leadership in diverse teams will lead to “social divisions, which in turn create negative performance outcomes for the group,” (Mannix & Neale, 2005, p. 31). To prevent social divisions from occurring, I will closely monitor intergroup and interpersonal interactions, both in person and in virtual team environments. Theories like symbolic interactionism show how each person will construe different words, ideas, or concepts differently depending on their cultural backgrounds. Knowledge of systematic oppression, intersectionality, and critical race theory will also help me recognize the invisible forms of oppression that can hamper group performance and progress. Gender will be an especially important consideration for me as a leader. I will also pay close attention to factors like power distance and attitudes towards authority, which will impact how each member of the team responds to conflict, to role ambiguity, and other challenges that may arise. Workplace Outcomes and Productivity The social culture of this group will likely influence workplace outcomes and productivity. When the members of the group interact in harmonious ways, we have the potential to collaborate efficiently on projects, getting the job done with aplomb. I expect that culture is not the only factor that will enhance or detract from group cohesion and harmony. Whether the people are from rural or urban communities will also make a huge difference in their worldviews and their attitudes, and their norms of behavior. Singapore is the only certainly urban contingent on the team. The individuals from all the other nations represented could be either rural or urban, with strong implications for how they perceive themselves, their agency in the world, and their role on a diverse team. A team comprised of highly motivated individuals who have strong communication skills and emotional intelligence will enhance productivity and lead the workgroup towards success. A collaborative work ethic will reduce the likelihood that hegemonic power or control will not be an issue, and that all persons are valued and respected.