Manage Team Diversity and Avoid Groupthink

Manage Team Diversity and Avoid Groupthink
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Manage Team Diversity and Avoid Groupthink
Diversity can be defined as the availability of people with differences. In the workplace, diversity means 5the presence of people of different sex, racial backgrounds, ethnic groups, academic background, among others. When managed effectively, diversity is beneficial since it helps resolve conflicts. People with differences have different ideas, and this makes them make right decisions. In turn, this makes them come with results which are positive. By appreciating diversity, employees gain self-esteem and a sense of dignity. They become free to air their ideas a factor that leads to cooperation, cohesiveness, efficiency, and justice.
Apparently, groups experience conflicts from time t time. As such, the best thing to teach employees is that every individual is important in their ways. Regardless of the differences, they are supposed to respect each other’s opinions and treat each other with dignity (Fernandez,2007). No opinion should be overlooked since all employees passed through the recruitment process which confirms they are competent and qualified and therefore reliable in the organization.
The fact that dealing with diversity helps teams get diverse ideas from different employees ensures a wide range of ideas. Inarguably, different people think differently. In teamwork, this helps the team have a large base of ideas.

Every employee has a different viewpoint of different scenarios (Jackson & Joshi, 2004). This makes the team benefit from innovative ideas which can help drive the organization to higher notches as far as quality is concerned. When all employees feel appreciated, they become motivated and therefore more innovative. This promotes diversification of opinions a factor which prevents group thinking. In a diversified workplace, employees engage in a healthy competition when it comes to their contribution in ideas. They give ideas depending on how they perceive the issue at hand. As such, any chance of group thinking taking place in the workplace is eliminated.
References
Fernandez, C. P. (2007). Creating thought diversity: the antidote to group think. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 13(6), 670-671.
Jackson, S. E., & Joshi, A. (2004). Diversity in social context: a multi‐attribute, multilevel analysis of team diversity and sales performance. Journal of organizational Behavior, 25(6), 675-702.