Leveraging Workforce Diversity and Team Development

Value of Team

Globalization has caused a network of relationships and organizational links within the business world. To stay competitive in today’s market, organizations seek ways to create an equitable workplace environment that will make use of the knowledge, skill, and attitude of a diverse workforce. Throughout this chapter, the authors use the term team to refer to organizational work group that work interdependently towards a common goal and produces an output that is the result of the team’s collective efforts (Oertig & Buergi, 2000).

Teams are made of individuals, often with different backgrounds. As diversity contributes to the creative innovation of a group, it is also diversity that poses challenges. Understanding individual work styles, group dynamics, and cultural variations is important to avoid potential conflicts.