"Of all the strategies available, empowered or self-managed work groups appear
to incorporate the essential criteria. Empowered groups can be utilized at
different levels of the organization to perform a number of activities,
including decision making, problem solving, planning, and of course, production.
Research has shown that under the right conditions, empowered work groups not
only boost productivity, but more importantly, for the purposes of diversity
management, they can increase warmth and personal regard among group members. Of
all the types of empowerment, teams may hold the most promise for promoting
diversity and harmony.
Why team? Because teams must:
Work closely together for sustained periods to achieve performance goals
Utilize their complementary skills
Share leadership and be held accountable for outcomes.
When teams perform as designed, commitment and trust among team members will
increase. However, if industry utilizes diverse teams, they must be given time
to work. It is not unreasonable to assume that diverse individuals could
experience some initial mistrust and uncertainty about one another, which will
only lessen as the team process evolves." This process can take several years
(Beaver, 1995).
The focus on diversity in organizations has gained prominence simultaneously
with the movement toward team structures in the workplace (Hickman & Creighton-Zollar,
1998).
What the diversity initiatives and self-directed work teams share is their
potential to enhance the level and quality of organizational outcomes by
focusing unique contributions and differences toward a common goal (Hickman &
Creighton-Zollar, 1998).
Self-directed work teams may provide one of the most natural means for
incorporating and promoting diversity in twenty-first century organizations
(Hickman & Creighton-Zollar, 1998).
Jackson and Ruderman contend that as organizations begin to use team structures,
they find that they must understand and effectively manage diversity in order to
be successful (Hickman & Creighton-Zollar, 1998).
Tremendous outcomes are possible when organizations successfully combine the
strengths of diversity with the creativity and effectiveness of self-directed
work teams (Hickman & Creighton-Zollar, 1998).
Specific changes need to occur in the structure, processes and policies of the
organization in order to provide an appropriate environment for diverse
self-directed work teams (Hickman & Creighton-Zollar, 1998).
The simultaneous emergence of diversity and self-directed work teams presents
organizations with new opportunities and challenges for the creation of improved
organizational structures and more authentic approaches to the incorporation of
diversity in the workplace (Hickman & Creighton-Zollar, 1998).
"Promoting community-based organizational norms is one way to combat alienation.
Efforts toward creating a community-based organization could include:
Structuring faculty meetings so that there are opportunities for small
group interaction
Developing departmental faculty forums where presenters are required to conduct
and present their research in teams; Offering benefits to team presenters
such as travel money
Coordinating team teaching opportunities" (Gubitosi-White, 1998).
Diverse teams include divergent experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. The
benefits of these teams include:
"Earlier identification of client issues, often due to greater cultural
understanding and sensitivity
Better defined problems and a more focused solutions delivery
Increased work efficiency through greater communication
Client satisfaction" (Anderson, 2003).
Offering incentives can help combat alienation. Departments can award travel
money for working in teams on research projects of for coordinating
team-teaching opportunities (Gubitosi-White, 1999).
