Ability to Create a Diverse Team Is a Priority for Leaders - Essay Example

Nowadays, a number of organizations and leaders have proposed that a diverse workforce is not essentially an ethical imperative, rather it is a source of competitive advantage. The reasons include the fact that a diverse workforce facilitates to serve different clients through effective communication and it can also generate better ideas and possible solutions to certain issues. Due to this reason, leaders must have the ability to bring together people from different families, disciplines, cultures, and groups and accordingly leverage every aspect of diversity (Kramar & Syed, 2012).

According to Mullins (2010), diversity incorporates differences between employees. The difference can be in terms of ethnic origin, gender, family background, cultural background and education among others. In accordance with the research of Ibarra & Hansen (2011), a workforce which consists of individuals from different backgrounds can cause better productivity in comparison with those workforces which are not diverse. Diverse teams have different thoughts and viewpoints as they arrive from different backgrounds.

As a result, it facilitates to create innovative ideas. Thus, managing a diverse team is considered to be the most important skill for any industry. The management of a diverse workforce comprises the implementation of approaches by which varied employees are combined into a dynamic workforce. However, an assertive and strong leadership is essential in order to manage this kind of workforce. In an actual situation, appreciating diversity is quite simple to say, but quite hard to implement. Diverse workforce if not managed properly can generate conflicts among the team members.

The different viewpoints and perspectives frequently generate confusion for the diverse workforce. Ultimately, disagreements can possibly give birth to the unproductive work environment and hinder the progression of organizational operations. Besides, unfamiliarity among diverse employees owing to different values can have a negative impact on overall team morale, hindering organizational productivity. A diverse workforce also makes the decision-making process lengthier, because of diverging opinions, resulting in delayed reaction (Cronin and Weingart 2007).

Conversely, a diverse workforce has several benefits and one of the most important benefits of diversity in innovation. Managers or leaders can use diversity by inspiring ‘outside-the-box’ thinking that can result in new discoveries. Furthermore, through a diverse workforce, managers can also realize the requirements of diverse customers. Hence, it enhances the marketing ability of organizations. A diverse workforce can enable derive access to a comprehensive talent pool. As a result, organizations will be in a better position of providing a variety of services to suit specific consumer groups.

Thus, diversity is stated as the only way to satisfy the requirements of diverse customers (Barnett & McCormick, 2012). Nevertheless, in order to be effective, the leaders of the diverse workforce must recognize the employees’ individuality. It would help to reveal the strengths and limitations of employees and also assist leaders to know the place in which an employee belongs within the organization. Managing a diverse workforce does not signify that leaders encourage their own values and alter the value of the workforce to match them.

For managing a diverse workforce, leaders require greater emotional aptitude, allowing them to observe a business condition from different viewpoints (Shin, Kim, Lee, & Bian, 2012).