Reflecting On The Experience Of Working In A Diverse Team

Challenges and benefits of working in a diverse team

Diversity of thought manifesting itself in the group:

The aim of this paper is to discuss the experience of working in a team setting where the team members have different cultural and democratic diversity (Homan et al. 2015). Diversity has been manifested greatly in my group because all the team members were not from same background with same understanding. In my team there were 4 people from twenty three to thirty five years old. All of these four people in my team had different cultural background for example one of them was Ukrainian others were Pakistani and Irish. I belong from the Indian background therefore did not possess any knowledge about the language and cultural ethnicity of rest of my team members. The educational background had also referred from one another. In this case someone had business and commerce in their major; some had studied with human resource management, accountancy and Finance Management knowledge. This difference in the knowledge and educational background had given us extra leverage than any other team. All of these team members have working experience in the organisations of their choice. One of us was the recruitment consultant another one was finance manager. My team also had one HR advisor and asset Finance manager. From this type of diversity it is completely understood that my team members had no perfect understanding of one another and their cultural or knowledge background.

In this regard it can be said that we had different types of thought mechanism as well as understanding which were related to our own values and personalities. It is understood that different cultures have different types of value system which create more impact upon the personality and behaviour of the persons. As we were all assigned for one particular project, therefore we need to understand one another more effectively. By growing interest to know the other cultural perspectives regarding this project had helped us to increase communication among the members. In this project we had to apply for our skills and capabilities so that the project can be completed within time and successfully. despite the fact that we considered the cultural diversity in the team all of us try to impose our own thoughts in the successful completion of the project staff in this regard I have faced different views regarding one particular issue and every one of the team were trying to impose their understanding for finding solution.

Communication and problem-solving skills developed working in a diverse team

 The diversity of thought were flourished when some of the team members were focusing upon Research and research and some other one was focusing upon implementing strategies in order to maximize the outcome of the project. As I have mentioned before that my team members had different educational and professional backgrounds therefore we get an overall idea of completing the project which did not lack to portion to cover. Each of the team members contributed their knowledge according to their understanding which led us to complete the project within time.

Navigating the challenges associated with diverse team:

Despite the fact that all the team members had contributed their skills to overcome any type of issues preventing the successful completion of project there were conflicts of thought and understanding also. There were challenges regarding the communication gap and inability to understand the process of working style. For example the financial advisor did not possess knowledge of human resource manager therefore he could not understand the points of the HR. However these types of challenges regarding communication and gap in understanding where easily overcome by following three processes. We shared our opinions respectfully and sort assistance as well as clarification from our lecturer (Zhou and Rosini 2015). We evaluated the strength of every team members from the very beginning therefore the respect for one another in the team became natural.

In the project on Shine for Kids, we have to share our knowledge respectively. This was due to the fact that we knew only the partial aspects of the project.  In order to complete the process we needed to depend upon other team members. Special knowledge lead us to share opinions only what we actually knew and listen to the other members mindfully to give the project a successful turn (Sun et al. 2017). We also sought assistance as well as clarification from our lecturers because he possessed a complete understanding of the project and guided us with his in depth knowledge. He guided us to communicate among ourselves and considered one another’s points in a more calculative manner. It was our mentor who guided us to increase communication even outside the university because he felt that importance of talking casually with the team members can enhance our team bonding. This head positively helped us to overcome the challenge of conflict common in diverse teams.

From the very beginning our team members when introduced they we focused upon their strong points so that their knowledge can be properly utilised (Wang, Kim and Lee 2016). I found that some people are very good in planning and strategizing the steps to complete the project successfully within time therefore allocated planning based tasks. Some of our team members were very good in judging the financial aspects therefore they had to play the responsibility in those parts. As a team leader I had divided all the tasks among the team members in such a way that they can remain in their comfort zone and contribute their best in the completion of this project (Trischler, Kristensson and Scott 2018). Most importantly the tendency to understand one another and positive psychology to work in a diverse team had motivated us to reach the height so easily.

Overcoming conflicts in a diverse team

Learning about self and others:

From this project working in a diverse team I have developed in-depth understanding of myself and can point out each of the strengths and weaknesses within me. Beforehand I used to work individually in any task and applied what my knowledge extended (Lee,  Swink and Pandejpong 2017). After working in this team I have developed some very important skills which will be utilised in the future profession. From the very beginning it was very clear that I do not feel nervous in excessive pressure. Each of my team members had the tendency to prove them for the leader there for their pushing me to my patience. I have learnt that I possess the extreme understanding of the situation and handle all adversity with patience. I have developed research skills and methods to build T&D program. These factors I have felt to be most important needs of completing a project. In this course of time and working with the diversified team members I have also learnt how to build a JD which strengthened by software knowledge (Hoisl, Gruber and Conti 2017). Beforehand I did not have any idea about Moodle Platform but now I have gained ample knowledge about this technology based aspects of the projects. Finally but most importantly, I have developed the idea of working in a team without focusing only upon the individual strengths and found that team work or collaborative work lets us understand many things which ease the completion of any task more effectively. Had I not entered into this collaborative initiative of their project, I did not have developed communication abilities in a proper way (Van Knippenberg and Mell 2016). I have now learnt how to communicate effectively with the team members for successfully attaining the common goals and how to work together for overcoming any challenges. Finally it can be stated that through this team work consisting HR advisor, asset Finance manager, recruitment consultant and finance manager, I have learnt the aspects of negotiation which will later be applied in the process of customer management or stakeholder negotiation process.

References:

Hoisl, K., Gruber, M. and Conti, A., 2017. R&D team diversity and performance in hypercompetitive environments. Strategic management journal, 38(7), pp.1455-1477.

Homan, A.C., Buengeler, C., Eckhoff, R.A., van Ginkel, W.P. and Voelpel, S.C., 2015. The interplay of diversity training and diversity beliefs on team creativity in nationality diverse teams. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(5), p.1456.

Ko, E.J., Wiklund, J. and Nason, R.S., 2015. Team Diversity and New Venture Performance: The Role of Family Relationships. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2015, No. 1, p. 18156). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Lee, J.Y., Swink, M. and Pandejpong, T., 2017. Team diversity and manufacturing process innovation performance: the moderating role of technology maturity. International Journal of Production Research, 55(17), pp.4912-4930.

Sun, H., Teh, P.L., Ho, K. and Lin, B., 2017. Team diversity, learning, and innovation: A mediation model. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 57(1), pp.22-30.

Trischler, J., Kristensson, P. and Scott, D., 2018. Team diversity and its management in a co-design team. Journal of Service Management, 29(1), pp.120-145.

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Wang, X.H.F., Kim, T.Y. and Lee, D.R., 2016. Cognitive diversity and team creativity: Effects of team intrinsic motivation and transformational leadership. Journal of Business Research, 69(9), pp.3231-3239.

Zhou, W. and Rosini, E., 2015. Entrepreneurial team diversity and performance: Toward an integrated model. Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 5(1), pp.31-60.