Workplace Diversity and Organizational Performance
Discuss about the Organizational Behavior And Workplace Diversity.
Organizational behavior is associated with the behavior of employees and interaction level of the employees among each other. Workplace diversity is related with the understanding, accepting and valuing differences among diverse set of employee. Organizations can better lead to increased level of performance trough effectively managing the diversity among the employees. This article will select three different journal articles on the topic of organizational behavior and summarize the main points of these article. The study will also analyze these articles by highlighting different similarities and differences among them. Based on the findings of the articles, the study will also suggest some suitable recommendation to the organizational managers for better harnessing organizational diversity.
Workplace diversity assists the organizations in fostering innovative ideas and better business decisions. It helps the organizations to get access to large pool of talented employees having diverse set of knowledge and backgrounds. According to Guillaume et al. (2017), diversity in workplace has double edged nature that can have both positive as well as negative impact on the organization. The organizations can gather diverse set of innovative ideas from the employees having diverse backgrounds, but it can also lower the morale of the employees. As per the Categorization-Elaboration model, diversity is the differences among the employees, which results in different perception among them. The theory also highlights that diversity actually undermines the social integration among the employees and reduce the well being and performance level of the employees because of inter group bias. The article significantly recognized the most valuable workplace diversity moderators, which are like relational demographic, work group diversity and organizational diversity. Guillaume et al. (2017) stated that relational demographics effectively manage workplace diversity by creating interdependence of the employees on each other. On the other hand, work group diversity harnesses the advantage of workplace diversity by allowing the diverse employees to share their knowledge and experience among each other.
Workplace diversity can improve as well as disrupt the performance level of the team. Diversity belief and climate play a significant role in the moderating the team performance level of a team. According to Van Knippenberg et al. (2013), diversity in the workplace may be an asset like informational source or a liability like source of intergroup biases and interpersonal tension. Moreover, diversity can disrupt the team performance and team process by endangering the intergroup biases. In this sense, heterogeneous teams are less performing as compared to homogeneous team. On the other hand, double-edged sword of diversity claims that the employees are different from each other in terms of demographic and functional background that are related to differences in experience, expertise, perspective and information. In this sense, heterogeneous teams are more performing as compared to homogeneous team by the virtue of their diversity. Van Knippenberg et al. (2013) also highlighted diversity mindset as the moderator of workplace diversity and work performance. The team members must have accuracy, where the goals and associated actions capture the understanding of diversity as crucial information source. On the other hand, the sharedness and awareness of sharedness lead to similarity of mindset among the team members. It ultimately fosters generation of unique perspectives, insights and information through culture-specific skills, knowledge and values of diverse work group.
Double-Edged Nature of Workplace Diversity
Contemporary organizations are increasing being relied on cross functional team to addressing the challenging and complex issues. However, diversity has become double edged sword for organization, which can both be positively as negatively related with the organizational performance. Van Dijk et al. (2012) pointed out that job related domain of diversity is positively associated with organizational performance, whereas, demographic domain of diversity is negatively associated with organizational performance. In this way, workplace diversity seems to be double edged sword for organizational performance. Demographic diversity usually leads to social categorization process, which affect the group performance negatively. On the contrary, job related diversity leads to information elaboration among the group members that affect the group performance positively. In this way, diversity cluster moderates the relation of workplace diversity with group performance. Diverse work group can draw larger pool of task relevant information. Furthermore, such diverse group can also mobilize their diverse information for achieving good outcome. The article has revealed that job related diversity results in positive relation among the group members, when the task is complex in nature. Such complex job requires diverse ideas and experience from diverse employees that leads to greater interdependence of the group members on each other. In this way, subjective rating demonstrates that job related diversity leads to more positive relation within group as compared demographic diversity.
Guillaume et al. (2017) highlighted the double-edged nature of workplace diversity that can have both positive as well as negative impact of the organizational performance. Diverse workgroup can foster rich and diverse innovative organizational information for leading organizational innovation. However, the article has recognized that the intergroup bias among the heterogeneous workgroup ultimately undermines the information elaboration of organization. In such situation, the managers should be focused on relational demographic for enhancing the interdependency of the diverse employees on each other. On the other hand, Van Knippenberg et al. (2013) focused on diversity mindset and shared cognition of the employees for leading effective diversity relationship among the employees. This article has used double edged nature of diversity as double edged sword for better utilizing the differences among the employees in positive way. The heterogeneous employees are more performing as compared with homogeneous employees through their sharedness of different ideas, knowledge and experiences. However, the intergroup bias and interpersonal tension can lead to decreased performance of heterogeneous work group. In such situation, the diverse team members must have accuracy, where they will have proper understanding of diversity nature and they will use diversity as perfect information source. Furthermore, Van Dijk et al. (2012) pointed out that job related diversity domain leads to effective relationship between the members of diverse group. However, demographic diversity is negative associated with the relationship among diverse group of employees.
Diversity Moderators in Workplace
Guillaume et al. (2017) have perfectly highlighted both positive as well as negative aspect of diversity and their impact on organizational performance. As per this article, the diverse group of employees can foster rich and innovative set of business ideas for leading high level of organizational performance. However, the employees are more likely to share their innovative ideas and information within their inter group. In such situation, the intergroup bias can disrupt the overall performance level of the diverse employees. Similarly, Van Knippenberg et al. (2013) highlighted the double edged sword of diverse team than can affect the organizational performance both positively as well as negatively. As per this article, diverse work group can be an excellent source of information in the organization that can foster rich and innovative business ideas. However, it can also be the liability for the organization, which can lead to intergroup tension and intergroup bias. In this way, workplace diversity can disrupt the team performance and team process by endangering the intergroup biases. Furthermore, Van Dijk et al. (2012) has also highlighted on the double edged sword of workplace diversity in the organization. As per this article, the job related diversity domain is more associated with positive diversity relationship as compared with the demographic diversity. However, job related diversity domain can better lead to diversity relationship, which the members are performing on any complex task.
Guillaume et al. (2017) has demonstrated different moderators of workplace diversity for better managing the diverse group of employees. Moreover, this article has highlighted the three moderators of diversity management that are like relational demographic, intergroup diversity and organizational diversity. Relational demographic leads to greater level of interdependence among the employees from diverse groups. Hence, such factor enhances the relationship among the employees from diverse group. Furthermore, inter group diversity lead the diverse set of employees to share their innovative ideas and information with each other. In this way, such moderator results in enhanced collaboration among diverse set of employees. On the hand, Van Knippenberg et al. (2013) have focused on different set of diversity moderators for effective diversity management. As per this article, diversity mindset of the employees is greatly associated with the relationship of the employees from diverse work group. The team members must have accuracy, where the goals and associated actions capture the understanding of diversity as crucial information source. Furthermore, the sharedness and awareness of sharedness among the employees encourage them to share innovative ideas and information among each other. In this way, the diverse workgroup can foster increased performance level of organization. In this way, the diverse work group can generate innovative and unique level of perspective in terms of culture-specific skills, knowledge and values of diverse work group. Furthermore, Van Dijk et al. (2012) have focused on different set of moderators for managing workplace diversity and harness the advantages of workplace diversity in organizational performance. As per this article, complex nature of task can better utilize the job related diversity domain of the employees. This information is more practical in nature and can be applied perfectly in real work scenario.
Analysis and Discussion of Three Journal Articles
Guillaume et al. (2017) have conducted their research on 35 organizations for revealing the importance of workplace diversity in those organizations. The primary information collected from the managers and employees has proven the social integration among the employees, which will lead to well being and increased performance of the diverse set of employees. With the authenticity of the primary information, such research result can be applied more on real work scenario. Van Knippenberg et al. (2013) have conducted research on the workplace diversity based on secondary sources. However, with lack of any primary source, such research result can be less applied on the real work scenario. On the other hand, Van Dijk et al. (2012) have conducted research on the workplace diversity based on secondary sources. The in-depth research of the article can be applied on real work scenario.
Better Communication
The managers of organizations should be highly focused on communication of the core purpose of organizational goals and organizational diversity. It will lead to social integration among the diverse team members and they will be willing to achieve the common organizational goals by applying their diverse set of knowledge and ideas.
Team Interdependence
Relational demographics lead to increased interdependence of the employees. Hence, the organizational managers should initiate better team interdependence among the diverse set of employees. It will encourage the employees towards share their innovative ideas and knowledge among each other for achieving common organizational goals. In this way, the diverse employees will in collaboration with each other for achieving the ultimate organizational goals.
Diversity Mind
The organizational managers should encourage the employees in fostering diversity minds among the employees. Such diversity mind will help the employees to understand different perspective of diverse employee set. Moreover, having diversity mind, the employees will understand the value of different ideas and perspective generated from diverse groups towards leading organizational success. In this way, the diverse employees will be willing to work in collaboration with each other.
Foster Job Related Diversity
Demographic diversity domain is more likely to foster intergroup among the heterogeneous work group. Hence, the organizational managers should be highly focused on job related diversity among the employees. In such diversity domain, the diverse group of employees will definitely share their innovative and unique ideas and experience towards achieving organizational goals. Such diversity domain is more effective in performing any complex job, where the employees require diverse set of skills and expertise for solving the complexity of the job.
Conclusion
While concluding the three articles, it can be said that organizations can better harness the workplace diversity by effectively managing the difference among the diverse work group. Relational diversity leads to high level of interdependence among diverse set of employees. Hence, it leads to increased collaboration among diverse employees. Inter group diversity encourages the employees to share their innovative ideas among each other towards leading organizational innovation. On the other hand, diversity mind of the employees is extremely important for having better understanding of diversity among the employees. The sharedness nature of the diverse employees will encourage the employees towards sharing ideas and information among each other. Furthermore, job related diversity domain in more impactful on the diverse employees rather than demographic diversity domain.
References
Guillaume, Y., Dawson, J., Otaye?Ebede, L., Woods, S., & West, M. (2017). Harnessing demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of workplace diversity? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), 276-303.
Van Dijk, H., Van Engen, M. L., & Van Knippenberg, D. (2012). Defying conventional wisdom: A meta-analytical examination of the differences between demographic and job-related diversity relationships with performance. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 119(1), 38-53.
Van Knippenberg, D., van Ginkel, W. P., & Homan, A. C. (2013). Diversity mindsets and the performance of diverse teams. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 121(2), 183-193.
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