L6 - Diversity and Multicultural Teams.ppt

diversity

1. Diversity and Multicultural Teams
Agenda
1.Cultural Diversity
2.Multicultural Teams

2. CULTURAL DIVERSITY

3. What is Diversity
Alliance

4. 4
What is Diversity
Person
Race
Physical
Ability
Sexual
Orientation
EthnicityGender
Age
Primary
Dimensions
Secondary
Dimensions
EducationMarital
Status
Parental
Status
Work
Background
Income
Geographic
Location
Military
Experience
Religious
Beliefs
Primary Dimensions
Inborn difference - Have an impact
throughout one’s life
Secondary Dimensions
Acquired or changed throughout one’s lifetime. Have
less impact – still impact self definition

5. Key Terms

6. Key Terms
•Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) means freedom from discrimination on the
basis of gender, color, religion, national origin, disability and age.
•Affirmative action plans  
(AAPs) define an employer’s standard for proactively
recruiting, hiring and promoting women, minorities, disabled individuals and
veterans. Affirmative action is deemed a moral and social obligation to amend
historical wrongs and eliminate the present effects of past discrimination.
•Diversity initiatives are goals devised to measure acceptance of minorities by
embracing cultural differences within the workplace. Diversity initiatives are twofold:
valuing diversity and managing diversity.

7. What is Diversity
•Cons - Problems caused by cultural diversity are to do with
communication and integration.
•Pros - Multicultural organizations are more flexible and open to new
ideas. Diverse organizations are more aware of consumer needs.

8. Perspectives on Diversity
•Moore (1999 ) analyzed the attitudes of organizations towards
diversity generally and identified four different perspectives:
–1. Diversity blindness : no provision is made within the organization for
addressing the problems and/or opportunities relating to diversity.
–2. Diversity hostility : the organization attempts to ‘homogenize’ its employees
and actively suppresses expressions of diversity.
–3. Diversity naïveté : the organization views diversity positively and encourages
diversity awareness, but is probably unable to cope with any problems which
diversity may cause.
–4. Diversity integration : the organization addresses diversity in a pragmatic
way. It helps its employees to develop skills in diversity management and
creates the preconditions needed for effective communication.

9. Stages of Diversity Awareness
9
Highest Level of Awareness
Lowest Level of Awareness
Denial
No awareness of cultural differences
Parochial view of the world
In extreme cases, may claim other
cultures are subhuman
Defense
Perceives threat against one’s
comfortable worldview
Uses negative stereotyping
Assumes own culture superior
Minimizing Differences
Focuses on similarities among
all peoples
Hides or trivializes cultural
differences
Accepts behavioral differences and
underlying differences in values
Recognizes validity of other ways of
thinking and perceiving the world
Acceptance
Adaptation
Able to empathize with those
of other cultures
Able to shift from one cultural
perspective to another
Integration
Multicultural attitude-enables
one to integrate differences
and adapt both cognitively
and behaviorally

10. Management Culture
What sort of management culture is to be found in multinationals?
•Théry (2002) distinguishes three types:
–a dominant management culture that is a copy of the multinational’s home
country (e.g. American management in a US multinational);
–a dominant transnational management culture created by the mother
company’s founders using clearly defined specific values, a culture present in
all the multinational’s operating companies;
–a minimum management culture, leaving considerable room for national
cultures in all their diversity.

11. Ethics & Multicultural Diversity
•Managers must take into account the values and associated norms
when it comes to ethical issues.
•Jackson (2011) argues that what managers need to do is not just
focus on what differences there are, but also attempt to discover why
the ethicality of culture may differ from their own.
–He suggests examining not just norms (the notions of right/wrong – what
Jackson refers to as ‘rules’) and values (the notions of good/bad), but also the
various elements of society which reflect these norms and values in more
concrete form.

12. What is corrupt behavior?
•‘The abuse of entrusted power for private gain’ – Transparency
International
•‘Behavior that might arguably be considered unethical, which involves
money, privileges, or favors in payment for a particular action, and
through which someone is directly or indirectly harmed’ - Eicher, 2009
What part of such practices is cultural, what part is acceptable, and
what part constitutes an ethics violation?
Ethics & Multicultural Diversity

13. Transcultural Competence
•Cross-cultural competence – the ability to function according to the
rules of more than one cultural system and to respond in a culturally
sensitive and appropriate manner.
•A diversity challenge:
–leading local and global people, both inside and outside the company in an
environment where ‘people find meaning, feel valued and respected and can
contribute to their highest potential’.
•An ethics challenge:
–dealing with the interests of stakeholders which reflect diverse expectations
and values.
•A ‘business in society’ challenge
–whereby managers take account of their company’s impact on the social and
natural environment

14. MULTICULTURAL TEAMS

15. What is a Team?
•The word ‘team’ can be defined as a small number of people who
work together for a common purpose and hold themselves collectively
responsible for what they do. Senge et al. (1995)
•Robbins (2000) proposes four types:
–Problem-solving. Such teams meet regularly to discuss and put forward
suggestions such as to how to improve work processes and methods.
–Self-managed. Such teams have no supervisor. Employees in these teams are
directly involved in the decisions made concerning work.
–Cross-functional. The members of these teams come from different
departments and work together to complete a task. Their position in the
hierarchy is usually the same, even if they come from different domains.
–Virtual. These teams can do the same as the other types mentioned –
exchange information, take decisions, accomplish tasks – but can also increase
in size by co-opting members from other organizations such as suppliers or joint
partners.

16. Trust
•Paradox - Trust is a prerequisite for working effectively in a team, but
developing a climate of trust is a challenge for multicultural teams.

17. Team Roles
•Each member has two roles
–First, as representative of a profession, a team member must show his
professional aptitudes as a specialist in his area.
–Second, each member should also demonstrate personal characteristics,
thereby performing an interpersonal role within the team.

18. Team Roles
•Some cultures may a have a preference for certain roles (Inglehart,
1997).
–bringing up good ideas would be the domain of the French
–structuring tasks would be that of the Germans
–obtaining the necessary means to perform would be the task of the Swedes

19. Team Task & Processes
•Task strategies: how the tasks are planned, who does what and
when, how decisions are taken.
•Process of group building: language, participation, ways of managing
conflict and group evaluation
•Mutabazi and Deer (2003) show that there are pre-existing attitudes
that effect processes and relations between Africa and the West.
–indifference towards the values and perspectives of other members
–inability to have spontaneous interactions
–concepts of time
–white savior complex

20. Team Task & Processes

21. Team Task & Processes

22. Harmonious Teams
•According to Chevrier (2000), multicultural groups with the most
harmonious relations are those whose members:
–have the same status;
–do not have contradictory interests;
–do not feel that their identity is threatened.

23. Life Without Diversity