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INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this assignment is to critically discuss the benefits and challenges of adopting
a diversity management approach with regard managing a multi-cultural sales team within the
pharmaceutical sales environment. In doing so the assignment will explore the challenges
and benefits of managing a multi-cultural sales team using information sourced from various
journals, articles and websites. The discussion will highlight issues around dealing with
cultural diversity and the implementation of a diversity management framework. Finally the
assignment will aim to identify components of the diversity management framework that will
complement the strategy to broaden the appeal of the organisation to the broader,
multicultural population of potential employees for the field force.

BACKGROUND
Diversity Management as defined by the U.S. Department of Security is The emphasis of a
structured management geared toward diversity is understanding, valuing and managing
differences and similarities to obtain enhanced communication and increased productivity in
any environment where human interaction is a relevant factor (US Dept. of Security, 2014).
This definition is an appropriate one to use in relation to the issue of managing a multicultural
sales team, particularly when considering the importance of communication and productivity
within sales teams (Conger, 2004). Congers assertion that teams who communicate
frequently are evidenced to be more successful than other who do not highlights advantages
around enhanced communication for business success and focusses on one of the obvious
issues for a culturally diverse team. (Brett et.al., 2006).
The team that is the subject of the assignment is made up of eight members possessing a
variety of ethnic backgrounds. These being Malaysian, Chinese, Egyptian, Australian, Greek,
Mexican and Indian. Managing this group of sales people can present challenges as a result of
that diversification. Whilst the team is bonded by the organisational culture of the
organisation, it is the ability to allow 100% of their cultural background into the organisation
that will result in the most positive outcomes (Kahl et al., 2010). The flip side to that
argument is that bringing 100% of their cultural values to the workplace there is also the
potential to exaggerate problems as a result of cultural clashes (Brett, et al., 2006). The
organisational culture is based on four pillars of behaviors that fit under a banner of Lead
and Learn (Appendix 1). These pillars list Being Connected, Taking Initiative, Getting
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Results and Growing Together as the four areas the entire organisation should be aligned with
to be culturally cohesive. In practice, these behaviors form a strong basis from recruitment to
performance management to ensure individuals are aligned and operating in ways that clearly
demonstrate their alignment. Being as prominent as they are, measurement is commonly
made against these behaviors and there may be an issue as to the universality of the
definitions and therefore how each individual interprets the demonstration of these behaviors.
The question then arises, is a diversity management approach a positive or is it a negative
particularly when trying to align a diverse group with common (arguably western) cultural
behaviors?
The main reason for the move to a multicultural sales team is better understood when
consideration is given to the customer base the sales team visits. Over 50% of General
Practitioners consulting in Australia are now born overseas (ABS, 2011). Additionally, the
ethic mix of these GPs is largely split between the UK, India, Malaysia and China with a
growing number from the Middle East (ABS, 2011). It is part of the strategy to have a team
of diverse sales representatives to engage with a diverse population of customers. Clancy
(East, 2010) reports on an influx of overseas doctors continuing to enter Australia so this
would indicate a continuing need to develop a sales team that can engage and service this
customer base.
The purpose of developing such a team aside, the characteristics of the diversity issue that
need management are primarily involved with the continuing recruitment of sales
representatives, the continued career path opportunities for the group and communication
challenges as previously indicated.

BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES

The benefits to managing diversity are not always obvious although there are many articles,
journals and advisors who have vast opinions on the matter (e.g., Bowers, Pharmer, & Salas,
2000; Joshi & Roh, 2009; Webber & Donahue, 2001). If you take a resource based view, an
organisations competitive advantage and growth are reliant on its unique group of functions
that is has and uses (Carpenter, Sanders and Gergerson, 2001). Growing a diverse employee
base accentuates that uniqueness and can create competitive advantage in areas such as
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innovation (Raatikainen, 2002). Building a case to support business diversity is difficult when
you consider it in contrast to other business propositions because the impact on the
organisational bottom line is not clear (Robinson and Dechant, 1997). As a sales manager a
key benefit of managing diversity of my team is to maximize the effectiveness of each
individual resulting in a maximized performance of the collective team. Individually, careers
are judged on sales performance and team performance so there is an obvious benefit to the
individual with regard to managing diversity within the team as managing to the employees
differences will assist each member achieve the results personally that will highlight their
career prospects.
A major benefit of a clear diversity management strategy is increased access to the industrys
limited talent pool. Demonstrating a solid diversity management program can help sustain a
competitive advantage when competing for this talent (Robinson and Dechant, 1997). How
can it do this? By being seen as an organisation that values skills first and foremost. This will
attract talent as they will invest in an organisation they perceive to be fair and just and
rewarding skills over other aspects.
Our business is focused on customers needs. In the competitive environment we operate in, a
clear understanding of their needs, both professional and cultural create opportunities.
Recruiting culturally diverse Doctors to educational events can be compromised by religious
beliefs, other Doctors may not be comfortable answering the probing questions of a sales
representative, there may be power distance issues with regard to GP-Specialist relationships
meaning Doctors are unlikely to contradict a perceived superior Specialist opinion regardless
of their belief. Ozbilgin and Tatli (2008) cite advantages in being able to mirror your
customer base such as discussed above with an example of a US firm employing diversity
management strategies in their headquarters. They were able to use their diverse knowledge
of international markets and customers in their launch programs targeting the specific cultural
norms as part of the strategy.
Understanding these and employing a sales team that reflects the cultures we service brings
benefits and potential competitive advantage to our organisation. It is what Thomas and Ely
(1996) termed The Emerging Paradigm: Connecting Diversity to Work Perspectives (p.48)
This paradigm takes advantage of the differences creating An environemt5 where workers
can say We are on the same team, with our differences-not despite them (Ely and Thomas,
p.51). The critical side of diversity is it can be seen as means to an end in achieving a legal
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requirement and not a tool for fairness and inclusion (Shen et al., 2009). Managing diversity
this way potentially can become exclusive as particular cultures are targeted for recruitment.
Also, there is a real difficulty in identifying a bottom line incentive for managing diversity
and funds used to do so may be easily accounted for in other areas (Robinson and Deshant,
1997). As indicated previously, cultural differences bring about the greatest potential to derail
effectiveness of team interactions because culture has dictated the norms for individuals to
expect when interacting and these can differ greatly (Raatikainen, 2002) creating frustration
at best. Finally, Cultural values and norms are often well hidden and difficult to identify and
as a result of this they usually hinder any smooth interaction of a team until uncovered (Di
Stefano and Mastieski, 2000).
Previously we spoke of the uniqueness benefits that managing diversity can bring and there
are different dynamics that provide that advantage such as written about by Seymen (2006):
Many surveys reveal that teams and a general workforce composed of individuals
coming from different cultures can present more effective resolutions for the business
problems. They show excellent performance in the long term and carry out their
duties efficiently when compared to homogeneous employee groups. It can be said
that this difference partially derives from the perspectives, views and experiences
increasing creativity and novelty in multicultural teams (Seymen, 2006, p302).
These advantages are highly sought in the industry the team operates within, a heavily
regulated industry that can benefit from creative and unique ideas in serving customers and
their needs, providing support for targeting diversity. Cultural diversity within work teams is
shown to lead to process losses as a result of task conflict and disjointed social integration
however it also leads to process gains through the increase in creativity and team satisfaction
(Stahl et al., 2009)
In managing the differences of the individuals in the group, the first step is to understand
them and this is where reference to Hofstedes framework (Hofstede and Bond, 1984) can be
helpful. As indicated, the behavioral framework within this organisation uses the lead and
learn pillars to demonstrate cultural alignment and a main issue is whether or not the
interpretation of these pillars is the same for each individual member. Hofstedes framework
can provide a background from a cultural perspective as to what may be impacting the
interpretation of these pillars. It is important to note the study was based more on a countries
cultural bias as opposed to an individuals, so it is important the results are not taking into
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account individual personality traits that may impact (Chiang, 2005). It is useful though in
understanding the building blocks of individuals experiences and how they may interpret
things as a result.
In their current environment, the sales team need to be autonomous and aligned with a
cultural trait of taking initiative. Taking Initiative lists decision making and taking ownership
of the situation as some key attributes. When you consider a team as diverse as the one being
referred to the issues around power distance, which impacts the distribution of power, can be
identified. For example, Hofstede ranks Mexico as a country with a very high power distance
rating (Hofstede and Bond, 1984), meaning that the decision making and problem solving is
likely to be seen as a management role not a worker role. If we translate that onto sales team
it may have implications around how individuals from Mexico interpret the term initiative
and therefore affect the perceptions of their performance given it is generally being judged by
someone from a low power distance country, Australia. This flows back to communication
issues as well when communicating with a group. The challenge is to ensure that any relevant
Mexican influence on this sales rep is understood and strategies are in place to have the
representative understand what displaying initiative in this setting looks like whilst having an
understanding of their potential discomfort around this and incorporate that into the review
process.
Citing this example potentially identifies a criticism of diversity management being that all
employees want fairness and the perception of fairness may not be apparent to all. Providing
a different framework around measuring the adaption of the organisation values may cause
discomfort form within the group and lead back to what (Di Stefano & Mastieski, 2000)
identified as a hindrance to smooth performance of diversified teams. Underlying this
criticism would be the ability of the leadership to articulate the diversification strategy and
provide a clear understanding to all of the organisation how this strategy benefits every
employee and the overall business performance.
This culturally diverse team is also coupled with a gender split of 50/50. That is judging
gender through a biological definition. The cultural roles of females and males can give rise
to other challenges. Within the team what considerations would need to be given to
employees with families who culturally accept the role of primary caregiver to extended
family members? Is the organisation set up in such a way to accommodate the flexibility
needed to accommodate such requirements? Whilst legally the organisation may well be able
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to accommodate the situation, where does it stand in relation to true diversity management?
According to Hofstede, Portugal is ranked as a predominately feminine slanted culture
(Hofstede and Bond, 1984). Does this have relevance for the organisation as it recruits new
employees to be aware of what needs may be required if a Portuguese mother was recruited?
Finally the challenges in managing diversity from the point of view of the individual is one of
inclusion and exclusion. A main challenge that surfaces is that by specifically managing
issues for the diversified individual am I compromising the inclusiveness of all other
individuals? Embracing the differences needed for a truly diverse workgroup is a challenge in
itself. Interestingly, an issue within the workplace surfaced around the Easter public holidays,
a Christian celebration where two days public holidays are observed by all regardless of
denomination. Having Greek members of staff, the challenge was to incorporate their needs
for Greek Easter Good Friday which followed a week later. This was seen as simple for
management to offer an additional day off to observe the festivities, however other staff made
noise and were questioning the appropriateness of this in light of the previous public holidays
made available to all questioning the fairness of the decision. Having the culturally diverse
sales team does present unforeseen issues at time such as this.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
Implementing a diversity management framework within the organisation to facilitate the
continued focus of providing a multicultural field force has implications across the business.
The motivation for diversity in recruitment, or even recruitment policies is sometimes not
aligned with commercial goals but legal compliance (Shen et al., 2009). The opportunity for
this organisation is to take advantage of the prospects a culturally diverse sales team present
and sharing the responsibility of the framework potentially creates a more cohesive
framework.
To be successful, diversity management is heavily reliant on line managers ability to
implement. Spreading the burden of responsibility for people management is a key theme of
diversity management (Kandola and Fullerton 1994). Sanglin-Grant and Schneider (2000)
identified line managers implementation of corporate policy on ethnic equality is sometimes
at odds with employees views of the actual practice. For example, do they believe the best
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person is being awarded a role or it is an affirmative action initiative that is being satisfied? It
makes for good practice then that line management be involved more in the human resource
decision making process so as to completely understand and effectively implement diversity
management strategies.
Strategic Human Resource Management practices that address issues such as inequality in
recruiting, performance reviews, promotions and rewards have the potential to improve equal
employment opportunities, inclusiveness and amplify creativity in the diverse workforce
(Burbridge, Diaz, Odendahl and Shaw 2002). The proposed framework (Figure 1) identified
by Shen et al.(2009) is an appropriate model for the organisation moving forward to enhance
its already strong diversity record and assist to ensure the benefits of the diverse workforce.

Figure 1. A framework of HR diversity management (Shen et al., 2009 p.245)

The strategic intent is to create workable diversified teams of representatives that mirror our
client base and create opportunities for the organisation. One of the difficulties is the sporadic
nature of field force recruitment. It is not always the case that multiple positions are offered
and this means that identifying the best candidate may not always align with a culturally
diverse candidate (unless that is part of a criteria, which may create its own issues of
exclusion).

However, the organisation is currently embracing a culturally diverse field force and the
framework will ensure there are measures and opportunities going forward to provide
engagement and career path for the entire field force regardless of their cultural differences.
Secondly, the framework plays a role in amplifying the benefits of the culturally diverse field
by providing actions that will feed into the overall aims of the diversity management
objectives. The benefit of this framework is that it can satisfy both commercial and legislative
objectives.
The focus on recruitment and selection is obviously critical. Perlman (1992) cites employees
and managers who regard diversity management as the same as every person having an equal
opportunity to enter the business, as a result seeing growing numbers of organisations
diversifying their employee base to successfully connect with customers. Equally important is
the development and training of the employees post recruitment. By having the training and
development focus in the framework the organisation is better placed to avoid the pitfalls of
those companies that do not involve it in their thinking. (Goodman et al. 2003) found
managers in organizations where there is a lack of effective HR diversity polices are likely to
promote or rate highly subordinates who have similar cultural backgrounds and experience to
themselves which works in contrast to the overall objective.
The framework involves the strategic, tactical and operational levels which allows a wider
scope for involvement of the entire organisation. Training programs and strategies that
communicate and educate will help in developing and nurturing the diverse needs of the sales
teams and also, by way of line management involvement, create ownership and
accountability.
In summary, the framework will support the completion of identified goals such as high
organisational performance and measurement of innovation. It can directly drive the
understanding of the Lead and Learn principles within the organisation through the
establishment of strategies at the operational level such as education, communication and
support functions. In doing so, the framework will help continue the drive to maintain a
strong and successful diversified sales team.

CONCLUSION
The benefits of diversification are worth pursuing even with the considered negatives.
Reflecting the needs of the customer base are a critical aspect for our sales team as we strive
to deliver a service that is relevant and preferred when compared to our competitor offerings.
Diversity Management approaches help facilitate the goals of diversification rather than just
letting them evolve on their own. What gets measured gets managed and by way of this a true
desire to embrace the need for diversification in our sales team will be achieved with a
framework that provides ownership and accountability, allowing measurement against set
objectives.

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Appendix 1.

About Lead and Learn (Source: BI international intranet)

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