Diversity in teams

Abstract

Diversity has many definitions, one of them is "variation based on any attribute people use to tell themselves that another person is different". . Diversity is especially connected to projects, programs and portfolios management through the people perspective.

People are critical to the success of projects, programs and portfolios and as stated in the DS Handbook 185 "Projects are made for people by people" . Even though it sounds obvious, it is only in recent years that people and behaviours have been recognized and incorporated in project management as a profession. An important part of this is to see projects as a collaboration between people, each with their own identities, knowledge, interests, feelings, personalities and so on. These are all factors that will make people see and approach the task differently, and requires attention from the manager. It does not help to have the right processes and right systems if the team members do not work effectively together. This has in many ways changed the role of the manager from a technician, an analytical person that schedules meetings and updates budgets, to a leader that also needs to have social skills. Communication is now recognised as a project success factor, and around 80% of managers' time is spent on communication. .

The factors mentioned above are all examples of different types of diversity that can exist in a team. In almost all sectors, whether it is government, business, science, health care, diverse groups are on the rise . There are several theories on how diversity affects teams, both positive and negative. It has the potential to disrupt team functioning, or on the flip side be the source of creativity and insight. Awareness and knowledge about diversity and how to handle it are therefore crucial for a project, program or portfolio manager.

State of subject

There have been done huge amounts of research on the topic of diversity in the past few decades. This has led to mixed, and even contradictory results. Qualitative reviews of the field of diversity conclude that that studies' results are inconsistent. Some find positive correlations between diversity and team performance, while others find negative correlations. Mannix, Elizabeth & Neale, Margaret A, suggest that the reason for the positive effects could be that advantages of diversity often are found under very narrow conditions . Meta-analyses have found either no correlation between diversity and performance, or a small negative effect.

It also has to be mention that this does not mean that diversity, for the reasons of equality, and are not both appropriate and necessary. Diversity initiatives can reduce discrimination and increase access to career opportunities.

Even though the research is inconclusive on whether the effects of diversity effects performance, it could still be challenging for teams, and especially to manage. This article will highlight the specific effects of the different types of diversity.

Effects of diversity

The effects of diversity have traditionally been understood trough three different perspectives:

1. Similarity-attraction. People are attracted to working with those with similar values, beliefs and attitudes. People can therefore have preferences on who they would like to work with, without having ever met them.

2.Self- and social categorization People categorize themselves into specific groups, based on a race, gender, values, beliefs among others, and others as outsiders.

3.Information processing Individuals in groups with cultural diversity have access too other individuals that have different backgrounds, networks, information and skills.

Both the similarity-attraction perspective and self-and social categorization perspective tend to lead to the pessimistic view of diversity in teams. Since individuals will be attracted to working with those that are similar to themselves, more homogeneous teams will be more cohesive and the members more socially integrated. It also creates an atmosphere where the outsiders are judged more stereotypically and experience different expectations. The information processing perspective does, on the other hand, offer a more positive view, as it leads to an increased the amount of information within the group and creates an atmosphere that can improve the group-performance.

Types of diversity

There are several types of diversity that all affects groups and teams differently. Research shows that surface-level-category differences, such as those of race/ethnicity, gender, or age, tend to be more likely to have negative effects on the ability of groups to function effectively. Underlying differences, like differences in the functional background, education or personalty, are on the other hand more often related positively to performance. This could for an instance be through increased creativity or group problem solving, which relates to the Information processing perspective. It is specified that this requires that the process is carefully controlled. In this section, the different types of diversity will be investigated further

Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity is defined as "the existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups in a society", but can be applied to teams as well. . An example of such a project is the [Hålogaland Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A5logaland_Bridge] in northern Norway, where the architect and engineers were Danish, the main contractor Chinese and some of the subcontractor Norwegian.

Even though research finds no direct relationship between cultural diversity and team performance, it still affects the processes within a team. . A meta-study done by (Stahl, G., Maznevski, M., Voigt, A. et al) suggests that diversity increases the forces of divergence within teams. They found that diverse teams experience increased creativity, more conflict and less social integration. It is also interesting to note that, contrary to their hypotheses, they found that culturally diverse teams did not experience less effective communication and actually had higher satisfaction. There were several moderators to these effects, and they show that the effects may vary, depending on contextual influences. For example, culturally diverse teams have more conflict when the task is complex, the teams were co-located and if they had more time together. The reason for this could be that teams with longer tenure, often work on more complex projects, end, therefore, has the opportunity to get into deeper and more difficult issues. There is also higher satisfaction in culturally diverse teams, contradictory to the general research on diversity. The rest of these figures are shown in the figure below:.

Figure 1: Effects of cultural diversity, made with inspiration from. The effects were depended on the moderators.

Personality diversity

Knowledge of the different types of personalities and how they may influence is crucial for the manager to be able to establish balanced teams that work well together. Project managers who know the natural roles of the team member can use that knowledge to build balanced and effective teams. This also leads to different preferences when it comes to types of work and team roles.

There are a number of ways of assessing these preferences (e.g. Belbin team role inventory).

-Motivation and culture, Maslow's hierarchy of needs

- Communication and culture: 80 % of managers time is spent on communication

--Diversity and complexity/Connecting the dots. Diversity can increase the complexity of projects, programs and portfolios, both within the project teams working, but also with the stakeholders. This is especially connected to cultural and language diversity. Different cultures may do the same work in different ways, and in a project, expectations for a certain type of work may not always align. For example, EHS(Environment, health and safety) in the construction industry can vary a lot from different parts of the world. In northern parts of the world, there are often way stricter rules, than further south. In different cultures, there are also different ways to communicate, which can make the project more complex. In larger projects where

Diversity and uncertainty When diversity affects the communication, it leads to increased risk. To reduce risk good communication between the involved parties is important.

-- Diversity in teams is also connected to the complexity perspective, and particularly stakeholder complexity. Stakeholder complexity focuses on the program team itself, and the diversity within the team.

How to manage diversity

-Pay attention to the type of task and goals divers teams are assigned. Use diverse groups for task for innovative tasks that requires creation and expression of divergent perspectives -Bridge team member through social ties, common values, subordinate goals or culture within teams Enchance influence of minority team members through differentiation, persistence and colations.

In a workplace environment, the manager can not always choose the background of the. There is there for up to the manager to deal with both the challenges and opportunities related to diversity. Commincation

What can the PM do ??

Annotated bibliography

.. Large meta study, that tries to summarize previous research on the topic of diversity and cultural diversity. Taken from the report: "Our goals in this study were to take stock of and synthesize the findings from previous research, to reconcile conflicting perspectives and past results, and to propose an agenda for the next stage of research in this field."