The Impacts of Diversity in the Workplace
Work places become more diverse as different groups become more accepted in society. In the 21st century, diversity of race and religion is more commonplace in the workplace than in previous centuries, and acceptance of sexual orientation and gender identity are becoming more widespread. A diverse work force can be more productive than a homogeneous one if managers oversee project teams and help minimize conflicts between people from varied backgrounds.
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Group Performance
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Stanford University reports diversity in the workplace helps employees work together on projects. Although workers may initially be nervous or upset by visible differences among team members, such as diverse genders or races, diverse teams tend to have less conflicts and settle conflicts more easily because the members expect a wide range of opinions and points of view. Conversely, members tend to expect that those that look like them will hold the same points of view and do not handle differences of opinion as well with non-diverse team members.
Communication Problems
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When employees do not share the same background, there is more potential for misunderstanding and miscommunication. Clearly, those members of the work team who are not native speakers of the work place's dominant language may have trouble communicating. In addition, both verbal and non-verbal language may be interpreted differently by members of different groups because of different experiences. Thus, workers must expend extra effort to clarify their points when working in diverse groups.
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More Diversity Is Better
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Stanford University found that groups worked better if there was a lot of diversity than if there were only one or two people in the group from a different background. For example, a group that consists of employees of various religions, sexual orientations and races works better than a group that has only one person from a different background than the others. When most of the members share backgrounds, the diverse member tends to be viewed as a "token" representative of her group and is not taken as seriously by the rest of the group.
What Managers Should Do
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Managers must manage diverse groups to ensure that they remain productive. It can help to rotate group members or group roles so that the same people do not always work together on projects or expect the same point of view from a particular group member. Managers should also be open to hearing different points of view so that they can model acceptance of diversity and should assign people of diverse backgrounds to leadership positions on various projects so that diversity is seen as a value in the workplace.
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