Business Psychology and Organizational Behaviour by McKenna Eugene;

Author:McKenna, Eugene;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2020-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

It is said that the listed skills are more likely to be dynamic and amenable to development over time than are Belbin’s team roles (Hayes, 1997).

DIVERSITY IN TEAMS

Diversity in teams can find expression in different forms. In the previous section both Belbin and Margerison and McCann emphasized the importance of diversity, when individual strengths and preferred roles are recognized in the allocation of work tasks. But diversity can also be associated with issues such as personality, age, gender, tenure, race, values, attitudes, and culture (Kearney, Gebert, & Voelpel, 2009). These are often referred to as “organizational demography” and depending on their complexion can have both a positive and negative effect on team performance (Bell, Villado, Lukasik, Belau, & Briggs, 2011; Joshi, 2006).

Regarding “personality”, many of the dimensions of the Big Five personality model (discussed earlier in this chapter in connection with the characteristics of effective teams and in Chapter 2) – conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness – have been shown to be relevant to team effectiveness (Bell, 2007).

The benefit of age differentials in specific circumstances was raised in connection with group effectiveness in the section on social facilitation in the previous chapter.

Gender diversity is said to have certain advantages, particularly with respect to the moderation of risk-taking in the team (Wagner & Hollenbeck, 2014).

Tenure or security of employment has also been studied in the context of diversity. As a general conclusion, it was stated that when members of a team enjoyed the same level of tenure, performance was impressive, but performance was less impressive where “tenure diversity” prevailed. However, adverse performance associated with tenure diversity could be rectified if appropriate team development practices were applied (Chi, Huang, & Lin, 2009).

Values and attitudes of members of a team differ in a significant way, in which case the seeds of conflict are sown and could become a real issue. To reduce the conflict to manageable proportions, it may be necessary for team leaders to be vigilant and responsive by cultivating group learning coupled with a firm focus on the work to be done (Klein, Knight, Ziegert, Lim, & Saltz, 2011).

Culture. The important issue of cultural diversity has been recognized (Adler, 2007). In recent years the development of global markets created numerous cross-cultural contacts, and cross-cultural dialogue has become the basis for transacting global business. Today managers do not have to leave their communities in order to work for a foreign-owned company, sell to foreign clients, negotiate with foreign suppliers, or attend meetings with colleagues from abroad. Design teams with members scattered around the world develop revolutionary new products and carry out their deliberations at electronic meetings, relying on e-mail and Internet discussions as well as teleconferencing, telephone, and fax.

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