In the wake of globalization, diversity has become a real issue in the workplaces. Most
teams exhibit various aspects of diversity; often defined by social, racial, gender and culture elements. Therefore, the existence of such diverse social groups has prompted the modern organizations to come up with measures to suppress any fallout or incongruence attributed to these factors. Gender roles have changed in modern society, and women just like their male colleagues compete for positions in the organization. On the flipside, certain cultures have still maintained an archaic belief that women are secondary to the males. It is in the backdrop of such beliefs that gender disparity still exists in the workplaces. This proposal focuses on gender, culture and personality issues, and how they impact teamwork. Workplace inclusivity is the unifying factor amidst the diversity that exists among people. Finally, this proposal will document a problem statement about these three issues, and a systematic way of resolving these outstanding issues.
Key Words (workplace, diversity, culture, gender, personality, communication) Research Problem
The issue of culture, gender and personality have been studied at great length, but no resounding outcome has been yielded regarding their combined impact on teamwork. Most teams are diverse due to the ongoing globalization, and as such, different individuals exhibit distinct cultural, gender and personality traits (Liu, 2007). Ideally, there is very few research that has been conducted on these combined factors, thereby prompting me to research these three aspects of team management.
On the other hand, lack of conformity and understanding attributed to cultural, gender and personality differences have triggered negative impacts to various organizations. A diverse team spurs innovation and creativity, thereby boosting chances of excellence (West, 2012). The clarion call for unity in diversity has not yet been realized in most organizations today; most teams are still grappling to create a unified managerial platform, which is hard to recognize because of the uneven state of gender, cultural and personality traits. To this effect, the research seeks to establish procedures that should be undertaken to align diverse teams that exhibit differences in gender, cultural and personality quests. Lack of inclusivity is a significant problem in most organizations, and it has sometimes killed their missions. Thus, there is a need to understand cultural, gender and personality differences in various organizations. The theoretical construct of this research is grounded on the outcomes realized by the gender, cultural and interpersonal communication differences attributed by the team members in an organization. To this effect, theories such as masculinity or femininity will apply to discussing how gender differences affect the team performance. On the same note, this paper will explore various communication and cultural theories to debate about their impacts on team performance.
Literature Review
Culture determines how people conduct themselves in the organization. Thus, cultural difference is a prototype that dictates the behaviors of people in a team. Principally, people tend to behave in the manner corresponding to their mainstream culture. On the same note, gender is another classifying element that defines the way responsibilities or duties apportioned among individuals. According to Zarbatany, McDougall, and Hymel, (2000), gender difference has been attributed to the prevalence of differentiated experiences within the peer culture. Certain cultures believe in men more than women. Besides, others apportion responsibilities based on the gender of the employees. Interpersonal communication is an essential aspect of any team in the current society (Thakker et al., 2017). Primarily, these three factors could inhibit teamwork and togetherness if applied to segregate certain cultures, gender or persons with unique interpersonal communication skills. Therefore, the literature review will rely on the scholarly discussion of these three elements of teamwork and establish the contributions of different authors on this topic.
The research questions act as a precursor upon which the objectives and aims of the research are achieved. This research will attract the following questions:
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How do culture, gender, and interpersonal communication affect teamwork?
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What roles does an organization play to create unity amidst cultural, gender and personality differences?
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How best can individuals behave to cope with others who exhibit different cultural, gender and personality traits?
Research plan. This research is designated to take five months. Most time will be consumed in the data collection stage. The timeline will be drafted in a comprehensive chart to show how these activities spread over a 5-month duration. Principally, all the activities are expected to be achieved within the timeline allocated.
Benefits and Difficulties
The main benefit of this research is that it will give a compelling data about the techniques that can be adopted to improve team coherence amidst the existence of gender, cultural and personality differences. On the same note, this project will realize new insights that can be incorporated in the organizations to promote inclusivity. Meanwhile, the only limitation is that the data obtained from the respondents might be biased, especially where the respondent has a grudge with the management.
References
Liu, X. (2007). Diversity in Teamwork – MARKSTRAT as a Model for Diversity Training.
München: GRIN Verlag GmbH.
Thakker, D., Karanasios, S., Blanchard, E., Lau, L., & Dimitrova, V. (2017). Ontology for cultural variations in interpersonal communication: Building on theoretical models and crowdsourced knowledge. Journal of the Association for Information Science &
Technology, 68(6), 1411–1428. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23824
West, M. A. (2012). Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research.
Chichester: BPS Blackwell.
Zarbatany, L., McDougall, P., & Hymel, S. (2000). Gender-Differentiated Experience in the Peer
Culture: Links to Intimacy in Preadolescence. Social Development, 9(1), 62–79. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=4407936&site=ehost-
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