Diverse Teams Produce Better Results

Research has consistently shown that diverse teams produce better results, provided they are well led. The ability to bring together people from different backgrounds, disciplines, cultures, and generations and leverage all they have to offer, therefore, is a must-have for leaders (Ibarra and Hansen 2011: 71).

In this blog we are going to discuss about diverse teams produce better results and will show that how the variety of people can achieve the common goal in same organization and bring bright new ideas to their organization.
The diversity in the organization has seen many patterns in the past where organisation has got success through diverse teams e.g. L’Oreal. According to (Cox, 2013) Organizations, government entities and communities pursued with diversity and proclaimed a positive result through setting goals’. Diversity not only gives rise to the organization but it also helps to lead the organization to the top level. The best example is Tesco where people from different cultural background work together, as this bring experience and knowledge of people together from different corners of the world and they work together towards the common goal and that is how Tesco got success in the business world. According to Tesco they provide to their managers with a religious toolkit which makes them to support their diverse people faith via information over diet, dress and prayer and also give suggestions about how to support colleagues during their festival, this has influenced the diverse culture of Tesco and people have passion to do their job enthusiastically. Diversity is today’s world tool which every organization used to create success in this era. Team with different back ground, ethnicities and gender are more innovative and creative as compared to those belongs to same background (Carole, 2008).
Diversity in organization brings new ideas which on constructive feedback give development to the most innovative thinking which create an organizational success. This skill of diversity in organization helps them to learn more from each other in such competitive environment where everyone challenge to each other with good ideas and that helps the organization to be benefited from diverse background. To manage the team of diverse people, the leader must have the capability and right skills to acquire diverse talent in order to increase efficiency and omit errors to improve the operational strength. The team success is not only about creating a diverse team but also leads them in an efficient way by training and motivating them towards objectives (Winter K.2008).
Gallois, Bordia and Hobman (2003) states that team success and relationship entirely depend on the leader’s management. If the leader has no influence on team of hardworking people then the organization will definitely unsuccessful on the other hand if the leader influenced the diverse team of people it will give a rise to company and bring new concept within organization due to the fact that people have a positive attitude and are motivated by the leadership style of the leader.
According to (Yukl 2010:26) ‘the process of leadership is to influence other by understanding and agree on what needs to be done and how to do it’. Leader always encourages their people for constructive ideas which build repute and that can be more creative with diversity.
Diverse team leadership requires transforming and motivating individual through interaction to bring out the best out of it. This concept is also known as transformational leadership Model.

Fig: Transformational Leadership Model

There are four basic components of transformational leadership Model (Turner, Parker and William 2010) which are:
• Inspirational Motivation ( It emphasise leaders behaviour and how he challenge and meaning the work of the followers)
• Idealised influence (It describes the admiration and respect of followers and highlights the leadership charisma)
• Intellectual stimulation ( it solicits leader new approach for the work performance and seeks creative problem solution form followers)
• Individualised consideration ( where leaders gives special concern by listening to the needs and concerns of the followers for growth)
There are limitations in this model as followers constantly depend on their leaders for approval of their performance which may foster deception (Mullins 2013).
In conclusion, the diverse team produce better results than same background people. In order to be creative, innovative and successful diversity is the need of the hour. The diverse team could only be effective if train and motivate by the right leader and this will result increase in efficiency of organization. The diversity should be comprises of equal opportunity with no discrimination then it can add value to the culture of organization and the workforce will act in a positive way.
References:
1) Carole (2008) ‘The Business Benefits of Diversity’. Management Services [online] 52(2), 26-30, available from
2) Tesco (2009) Diversity in action [Online] available from [http://www.tesco-careers.com/home/working/diversity] [21 Feb 2014]
3) Winter k. (2008)Team Climate and Productivity for Similar Majors versus Mixed Majors. Journal of education for business.
4) Williams, H, Parker, S, & Turner, N (2010), ‘Proactively performing teams: The role of work design, transformational leadership, and team composition’, Journal Of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 83, 2, pp. 301-324.
5) Steven, C. (2013) ‘The Costs and Benefits of Diversity: Are Religious Differences Most Important’? Journal of Global Business issues 7(2), 9-20.
6) Garry, Y. (2010). Leadership in organization. 8th Ed. Prentice hall