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As a Manager, Would You Rather Supervise a Work Group with a High Level of Diversity, or One That Was Composed of Members Quite Similar to One Another? Justify Your Answer.

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As a Manager, Would You Rather Supervise a Work Group with a High Level of Diversity, or One That Was Composed of Members Quite Similar to One Another? Justify Your Answer.
As a manager, would you rather supervise a work group with a high level of diversity, or one that was composed of members quite similar to one another? Justify your answer.

Introduction
Everyone is different; there is not a single person in the world that is identical to another person, not even twins. People will have different reaction and make different decision when come to face a crisis or under pressure. Diversity at work can include demographic differences between people in the organisation, functional or educational background (Knippenberg & Schippers 2007). This essay is to decide for a manager to supervise which group of staffs by comparing the benefits and negative effects of a work place that is having a high level of diversity and one that was composed of members quite similar to one another.

Diversity at work
As a result of globalisation, many people are working far from their origins (Macmillan 2011). Organisations nowadays have a bigger diversity of staffs. People from difference age groups, gender, marital status, ability, ethnicity, educational background are now working under the same roof. Because they are coming from different background, they can provide innovative ideas to improve the internal working environment as well as externally. Innovative ideas are very important for businesses such as hospitality organisation and information technology. For hospitality business, their target customers are from all around the world with different expectation and requirement. By having a great diversity of staff, they can help to contribute different ideas to entertain the needs of customer and gain guest satisfaction. However, as the staffs’ ability is not the same, some of the company might be hard to carry out and standardize the procedure. In addition to contribute innovative ideas to the organisation, by having minorities and physically challenged staff can have positive image to the company as a responsible business (Bredgaard 2004).



References: Barrick, M., Stewart, G., Neubert, M. and Mount, M. (1998) ‘Relating Member Ability and Personality to Work-Team Processes and Team Effectiveness’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 83 (3), pp 377-397. American Psychological Association Inc. [online] http://iims.uthscsa.edu/sites/iims-drupal/files/TeamProcess-1.pdf (accessed: 1 Aug 2011) Bredgaard, T. (2004) ‘Corporate social responsibility between public policy and enterprise policy’, Transfer: European review of labour and Research, 10, pp 372-392. European Trade union Institute [online] available at http://trs.sagepub.com/content/10/3/372 (accessed: 27 July 2011) Iverson, K. (2000) “Managing for Effective Workforce Diversity : Identifying Issues that are of Concern to Employees’, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 2000, 31, pp 31-38. The Center for Hospitality Research of Cornell University [online] available at http://cqx.sagepub.com/content/41/2/31 (accessed: 27 July 2011) Knippenberg, D. and Schippers, M. (2007) ‘Work group Diversity’, The Annual Review of Psychology, 58, pp 515-541. Review in Advance [online] available at http://pscy.annualreviews.org (accessed: 21 July 2011) Macmillan, R. (2011) ‘Transitions from School to Work: Globalization, Individualization, and Patterns of Diversity’, Contemporary Sociology: a Journal of Reviews, 40, pp 150-239. American Sociological Association [online] available at http://csx.sagepub.com/content/40/2/217 (accessed: 30 July 2011) McLeod, P., Lobel, S. and Cox, T. (1996) ‘Ethnic Diversity and Creativity in small Groups’, Small Group Research, 27 (2), pp 248-264. Sage Publications Inc. [online] available at http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68515/2/10.1177_1046496496272003.pdf (accessed: 25 July 2011)

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