UNC-Chapel Hill SOWO 804 - Diversity, Conflict, and Organizational Effectiveness

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Diversity, Conflict, and Organizational Effectivenessby Rory Mullett, Vice President, Workforce Issues Practice AreaAccording to a survey of HR thought leaders by the Human Resources Planning Society, change management, culture management, organizational effectiveness, and team building are some of the most highly valued HR competencies (Eichinger, Ulrich et al 1997). Ironically, although these competencies all require effective diversity management (Norton and Fox 1997), the sameHR leaders ranked diversity issues relatively low in terms of importance.The literature commonly recognizes a symbiotic relationship among diversity, conflict management, and organizational development (Costantino and Merchant 1996, Cox 1993,Kay 1994, Manz and Neck 1995). Diversity is a broader concept than conflict in the sense that people can have differences without being in conflict. Nevertheless, if it can be said that an organization effectively utilizes and manages difference, the same conclusion would apply to conflict and vice versa. It follows that a diversity culture is necessarily friendly to difference and conflict. The connection that needs to be made for business leaders is how what we call “valuing diversity”—that is, openness to difference/conflict—enhances organizational effectiveness.General Benefits of Difference/Conflict-friendly CultureConflicts can stimulate learning and change, guard against lethargy and a tendency towards “group think,” and encourage innovation by forcing parties to search for solutions to underlying problems. Conflict facilitates processes of mutual accommodation through the exploration and resolution of differences. For example, executive teams that experience more conflict perform better than those with low levels of conflict because they gain a deeper understanding of strategic issues and come to more creative decisions (Eisenhardt, Kahwahy, et al 1997).Critical ThinkingConflict-resolution processes facilitate critical thinking on the part of employees and, therefore, also facilitate individual development, cooperation and teamwork, and organizational effectiveness. The positive correlation between conflict-resolution processes and critical thinking becomes evident upon consideration of non-conflict-friendly processes; if conflict is unwelcome, critical thinking will either not take place or not be communicated. Management techniques that draw on critical thinking, and are therefore diminished in the absence of conflict, include strategic planning, effective decision making, creative problem solving, situational leadership (willingness to abandon fixed ways of dealing), entrepreneurial risk taking, R&D activity, team building, and TQM (Brookfield 1987, pp. 138–139).The consequences of conflict intolerance and failure to engage in critical thinking on the part of executives are that they don’t say what they mean or test their own assumptions, so important issues don’t surface and remain unresolved (Argyris 1986).The components of critical thinking are (a) identifying and challenging assumptions,1(b) understanding the influence of context, (c) imagining and exploring alternatives, and (d) being skeptical of claims to universal truth or ultimate explanations (Brookfield 1987, pp. 7– 9).Promoting Greater Individual Responsibility and Teamwork WhileMaintaining ControlPersonal identities, norms of interaction, and perceptions of reality are less fixed than they once were. Managers need to learn that they can no longer assume consensus on these matters as a basis for interaction, but that they need to achieve consensus while interacting to reach decisions (Deetz 1993, p. 31).The key is to balance the requirements for (a) greater individual responsibility, usually promoted by internal competition, (b) trust and internal support, promoted by systems concepts such as learning cultures and flexible boundary management, and (c) control. One needs to see the requirements not as contradictory but as positive forces that can be harmonized. There is no one balance that is right for all organizations (Kaye 1994). “[W]hen differing perspectives are present, it is through their dialectical interaction (implying both conflict between them and their simultaneous validity) that qualitative changes in shared frameworks can best evolve” (Bartunek and Reid 1992, p. 117). As in the case of other apparent management dilemmas such as long v. short term focus, creativity v. discipline, etc., the common element is empowerment v. alignment,which requires a never ending balancing act because both ends of the pole are desirable, not one at the expense of the other. The management task is to get people to see the value in both sides, to live with the inherent ambiguity, and to make some sense out of the apparent contradictions (Stewart 1996).Conflict Resolution and Developmental GrowthSome managers move beyond problem solving and use problems to create larger opportunities, e.g., Honda’s Fujisawa, Ford’s Petersen, and GE’s Welch. “Problems...are not just hassles to be dealt with and set aside. Lurking inside each problem is a workshop on the nature of organizations and a vehicle for personal growth” (Pascale 1990). Well-mediated conflicts can cause one or more of the disputants to reflect on their relative positions, interests, andrelationship—not to mention the context in which they find themselves interrelating. (Bush and Folger 1994). Well-mediated conflicts often result in a positive change in the relationship and/or a positive change in perspective on the part of one or more of the disputants, a strengthening of the self, or even an overall increase in human capability to deal with life and its problems by extending oneself cognitively to better understand others.Organizational LearningThe ability to gain insight from experience is the essence of organizational learning.Effective learning occurs when people reflect on the consequences of their actions andthereby gain insight. “Effective learning systems surface differing perspectives to better interpret experience and spark innovation” (Shaw and Perkins 1992, p. 177).2Senge defines a learning organization as a place where people are continually discovering how they create their reality and how they can change it. He argues that learning to learn is critical to organizational survival and growth in today’s turbulent environment. The five disciplines required for


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UNC-Chapel Hill SOWO 804 - Diversity, Conflict, and Organizational Effectiveness

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