Running head: BECOMING ONE

Becoming One - Leading a Culturally Diverse Workforce Justin Edwards MGT 460 Professor Timothy Crawford September 12, 2011

BECOMING ONE Becoming One - Leading a Culturally Diverse Workforce Introduction Cultural diversity in a single setting is an ever-growing situation around the world and is becoming commonplace in many companies. Leading a diverse workforce presents several

challenges to management and no one style of leadership will fit all situations. It takes a diverse leader to effectively coach, inspire, and improve the productivity and aura of job satisfaction the workforce feels. Since separate groups tend to feel differentiated by their own values and beliefs, managing each group in a way to make them feel important as well as a part of a single team becomes the responsibility of their leader. Segregation and prejudice can become a major hindrance to a company that works various ethnic, religious, or generational peoples simultaneously on a work floor and becoming proactive in unifying the workforce is becoming a more prevalent theme in modern leadership. By utilizing several leadership theories in conjunction with a few key strategies in communication and team building, a leader can effectively tie together all groups with a common goal and thus promote a productive and harmonious workforce. Background At my former place of employment, Siegel-Robert, we recruited and retained a wide range of culturally differentiated people, and although there were challenges, management through proper leadership - was able to embody tranquility in the plant that led to increased productivity, quality, and comradeship among the staff. The factory's purpose was manufacturing automotive trim with a mission of delivering the highest quality and diverse products to fit any application and delivered on time to an industry that operates with these needs. Any infractions in productivity could result in delayed deliveries, which would not

BECOMING ONE benefit the company's stakeholders, who were customers, the community, and the employees themselves. Coordinating an efficient production system depended on the synergy of each department. Within each department, a variety of employees of varying backgrounds coexisted for a common cause - to uphold the mission statement and its elements that drive our goals and vision for the future. When the plant first opened on the outskirts of town, near an adjoining county that struggled economically, mass hiring took place to fill positions. The locals of the next county were among the first to apply and thus became hired. This group of people can be looked at as, from a professional standpoint of view, a group with minimum skills and education. However, most were fully capable of performing the tasks needed to accomplish the directives of supervision and meet the needs of our customers. After several years, the original team had evolved into a well-oiled machine as most employees knew each other well and got along, supporting each other in their objectives. Newer hires included city locals and having grown alongside this rural population, few conflicts of cultural differences existed. The facility thrived with its original workforce in place; however, due to an old problem of a lack of ideas, a decision to hire a new kind of group of employees, to fill spots created after a major expansion, came into effect. The war in Bosnia drove out many people who came to America in search of a new life. Immigration to our area rose as a result and a completely different workforce was available for hire. The economy was much better than present day and our company was winning awards as a supplier. We doubled our facility's capacity and doubled the need for new employees. Bosnians came to work, often bring several members of their families as well, and soon we met our production needs again.

BECOMING ONE As time progressed, and as the pool of potential hires from the neighboring county and Bosnians alike became exhausted, Human Resources started receiving workers from staffing agents that provided a daily batch of persons from all lifestyles. This included Hispanics, Vietnamese, and young Americans fresh out of high school. Our new workforce was fully in place and included a wide range of persons that could contribute to our future success. We had persons of varying education, ethnic backgrounds, and social class all working side by side to produce the parts needed for orders. However, it soon became apparent that each segment of tenure, drifted naturally to form their own work groups that operated outside of the others. The new dynamics soon made apparent that what we had in the original team, solidity and unity, split into separate groups that were less effective than before. Feelings of separation resounded in the comments made during many candid interviews conducted to investigate the

root of the problem. To address this situation, management initiated several measures in order to grow a solid work base comprised of a diverse workforce that could operate together. A primary issue with a diverse workforce is that people of different cultures view each other in ways that can become negative and non-conducive to a harmonious working environment. Problems arise when groups perceive themselves as the hardest working, or the most knowledgeable, and fail to interact with other groups effectively. Miscommunication leads to poor quality or productivity, and that leads to bigger problems in a plant that already operates on a tight schedule. Leadership Strategy - Yuengling's Hypothesis An individual group of one genre can and will have internal issues develop at times, but working through them is much easier than mediating differences that develop from groups that have opposing values. Leadership should promote an environment that fosters interdependence and teambuilding, as well as a system of internal values shared by all. Building trust among the

BECOMING ONE groups is a key factor to establishing the harmony needed to create a single group that works together and functions well to fulfill the needs of the plant and to its stakeholders. To do this effectively, one must possess several traits deemed necessary towards being a culturally competent leader (Yuengling, 2005). A study conducted by a Renee Yuengling suggest that several traits are not only needed to lead a large group of culturally diverse peoples, but that those traits must be present in all leaders that hope to exhibit a sound focus on building the trust and followership. The five traits are: commitment to fairness, standards, feedback, transformative awareness, and super-ordinate focus. The first three traits are basic and easily understood, but the latter two need clarification for research purposes in developing oneself into an effective leader. "Transformative leadership begins with questions of justice and democracy, critiques inequitable practices, and addresses both individual and public good" (Shields, 2010, p.558).

Transformative awareness is not a common phrase and may be Yuengling's own coined creation, but further exploration revels that the term transformative is used extensively in content associated with intercultural or adult learning. Transformative relates to a perspective transformation with three distinct elements: psychological by understanding the 'self', convictional through revision of belief systems, and behavioral in changing of the lifestyle. The awareness part of Yuengling's coined phrase suggests that we should realize where we stand and that change is possible through these channels. Self-improvement is possible in most everyone. Super-ordinate focus is the method of resolving issues and conflicts that make the problem large enough that it takes two or more, groups in our case, to solve. Experiments in Psychology conducted by Muzafer Sherif et al. reveal that tensions that cause animosity can be created between two distinct groups and through cooperation in problem resolution, friendships

BECOMING ONE are formed. Individual frustration can lead to combined group animosity and in a business setting, this can be detrimental to the day-to-day operations. In a book detailing the so-called Robbers Cave Experiment, it was noted, "that individual frustration may appreciably affect the course of intergroup trends and be conducive to standardization of negative attitudes toward an out-group," (Sherif et al., 1961, p.197). Group relationships of this nature were prevalent at Siegel-Robert. Breaking down the conflicts between the groups first involved interrupting the barriers between departments. The 'island' effect of each department, being each phase of production consisting solely in itself, fostered struggles between the groups in a way that led to pointing fingers and denying guilt instead of accomplishing any work to resolve the issues. At this point, it became necessary to form interdepartmental teams to work together, by forcing separate departments to take responsibility as a single entity instead of as specialists within the bigger picture. The same 'island 'effect carried over from the different groups of demographic backgrounds and thus created flow issues within the interior of each department. Leadership Strategy - Husting's Hypothesis Pamela Husting is a Director of Nursing Education and Research who, like Renee Yeungling, sought to bring some perspective of managing a diverse workforce. The key difference in both author's papers is that Yeungling looked for defining traits of a successful leader, while Husting proposes a method for understanding other cultures. In summary, by examining one's own cultural beliefs and views, a person should acknowledge that other points of view are real. Then, by exploring other cultures, one can build trust and respect that comes from the communication that takes place when learning about what makes others tick. By allowing each group to add input to accepted norms of behaviors and establishing equal

BECOMING ONE partnerships among the groups, a cohesive system will spawn from the first step - the leader evaluating himself to determine where he fits in. From there, bridging the gap between cultures becomes much easier. Putting it Together The methodology of uniting differing cultures as a working team involves several other exercises and considerations. Number one revolves around ethical considerations. Ethics in

business is not just about managing compliance programs, but being aware of the ethical climate (Trevino, et al., 1999). In a multicultural setting, differing values can tangle a structured ethics program designed by a local employee based on local ideals. Involving each party in defining accepted guidelines is critical in ensuring the buy in of each culture as each one has given input that represents their background. Employee rights have been culminating for years in the workplace, and integrating several cultural backgrounds is a perfect place to practice these philosophies. Everyone wants recognition for their efforts and the leader should remain unbiased when deciding who gets what, and how operations are structured. Using consistency in moral reasoning and the distribution of justice play an important role in spreading the ideals of fair play and doing so prevents retaliatory effects when progress is lost in these areas. The next consideration is the effective use of communication. The human communication process involves a source and receiver, encoding and decoding, the message itself, the channel, noise, competence, and communication context. When dealing with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, there is always a possibility of language barriers, so interpreting feedback is how we make sure the receiver understands what we intended. We attempt to have others understand our meanings as we do, and the process can fail or succeed depending on the interpersonal and group communication competencies of the leader (Shockley-Zalabak, 2009). In a facility that

BECOMING ONE functions with written work instructions, management must carefully ensure each individual fully comprehends the instructions and can demonstrate so. When communicating to those who

learned the facility's language as a second language, noise from the listener's native language can hinder the meaning of the messages and result in misunderstandings. This leads to poor performance, lowered moral, and in the situation this paper discusses, hard feelings. In order for a manufacturing plant to thrive, it is always important that all members of staff know exactly what is expected. One suggestion is to develop a method of communication that everyone understands. Developing a code of conduct that all members accept establishes a team atmosphere and generates the overall working environment that allows two or more groups to learn to work together. While building the code of conduct with input from all sides is important, the leader should take the responsibility to understand each culture represented in order to ensure that all sides really do agree with the set rules. I began working at Siegel-Robert after the initial hiring process brought in the first group of rural locals. I have grown up in this area and already had a good idea of what their values are, but when Bosnians began showing up for work, it seemed like a completely new ballgame. To express the differences, I can only say that one group was undereducated while the other was mostly comprised of those who had completed college and were well into their professional careers. I understand that such a dramatic change in lifestyle would upset people and undermine a sense of resentment. In our plant, we harbored a prejudice verses arrogance atmosphere because management was unprepared for this new dynamic combined with the rapid hiring of Bosnians. A leader faced with this dilemma can only try to understand what they do not know and dedicate the time needed to educate themselves about a foreign culture. Reading anthropological

BECOMING ONE literature and talking with members of other groups can provide insight, progressing towards

cognition of other worldviews and develop open relationships. By accepting differing views and behaviors, respect can be both given and earned by the leader as well as each individual comprising separate groups. These are the first steps towards influencing the opposing culture to accept the differences and learn to trust them while working together productively. What lies on the surface of some individuals may not reveal what is underneath. From what most employees knew about Bosnians, that they worked tax-free for a few years and spoke a different language, the impressions that developed were always negative and never reflected the amount and quality of work some Bosnians exemplified. When those of us charged to pull these two cultures together learned about the dark side of war and what several had actually gone through, it put a new perspective on who they were and why they were here. From that point on, bringing together a cohesive team in the plant was only a matter of team building. Team building relaxes inhibitions and develops trust while taking on new challenges. Promoting teambuilding to develop the new workforce as a unit and resolving ongoing issues of resentment and prejudice prevents sustained animosity. Events such as intercultural potlucks, cleaning activities, and process development that involves a diverse focus group allows people to develop relationships that would not otherwise develop with the parties being coaxed together and led to generate ideas from various points of view. The leader can mediate such events that ensure the groups do not split up or take on the appearance of two or more groups. Many games and exercises are available and at Siegel-Robert, we essentially worked through a whole book, being sure to include every team member from each culture, to demonstrate that the company was serious about retaining both groups and forming a team spirit without prejudice or resentment.

BECOMING ONE 10 Conclusion With Globalization on the rise, many businesses find themselves employing a diverse and multicultural workforce. There have been a few studies and reports to guide a business towards effectively utilizing the full potential of its employees, but at times animosity between groups overwhelms any attempts of cohesion. In order for a leader to be effective in this scenario, one will need to move away from ethnocentricity by exploring his own beliefs and values, and how they may differ from others. Once this takes place, then the first step towards acceptance begins the process of unifying a team of differing backgrounds. Successful leaders show five essential traits and have a less difficult time building trust and good followership. To minimize setbacks in the unification process, considering ethics in fair play and establishing a solid communication base will determine the success or failure. Allowing groups to get to know each other during team building exercises, allows the groups to form a common bond that directly relates to the company's mission statement. One work force, one goal, one unified team - these are what a company needs to survive in a manufacturing environment.

BECOMING ONE 11 References Hodson, Dawn. (1993, May). Managing an increasingly diverse work force. Manufacturing Systems, 11(5), 56. Retrieved September 12, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. Husting, P. M. (1995). Managing a Culturally Diverse Workforce. Nursing Management, 26(8), 26-32. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Sherif, M., Harvey, O.J., White, B.J., Hood, W.R., Sherif, C.W. (1961). Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment. Retrieved from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Sherif/chap8.htm. Shields, C. (2010). Transformative Leadership: Working for Equity in Diverse Contexts. Educational Administration Quarterly, 46(4), 558. Retrieved September 11, 2011, from ProQuest. Shockley-Zalabak, P. S. (2009). Fundamentals of organizational communication knowledge, sensitivity, skills, values (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education. Trevino, L.K., Weaver, G.R., Gibson, D.G., Toffler, B.L. (1999). Managing ethics and legal compliance. Leadership priorities and practice (Ashford University edition). (2007). Boston,
MA: McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions.

Yuengling, A. R. (2005). Leading across diversity: An exploratory study of the implications of multiculturalism on leadership behaviors in the United States Army. Ph.D. dissertation, Union Institute and University, United States -- Ohio. Retrieved September 11, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global.