Angelica Mate

OGL350: Diversity & Orgs.

Professor Gupur
October 11, 2019

Module 7 Paper

In this module, I gained a better understanding of obstacles and the benefits of having a
diverse team. I also learned about the influence of culture on different management styles and
how an effective managed diverse organization can greatly impact the performance. It was
interesting to learn more about diversity in teams and organization since I work for a company
that has a very diverse team. I was able to analyze and compare my current situation at work
and be able to apply concepts that I learned towards future careers.
Currently, I am a Shift Supervisor at Starbucks and have a pretty diverse team. Our team
consists of different genders, ethnicities, race, and religion. The purpose of my organization is
“To inspire and nurture the human spirit - one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a
time”. In regards to the diversity of partners, this purpose is to inspire and nurture individuals,
regardless of their culture and their beliefs. We provide service and create connections with
customers even if they have different perspectives than our own. The identity that I bought to
this position is having an awareness of the different cultures and continually learn about the
various factors of diversity. In Leadership in a Diverse Workplace, “leadership plays a much
more important role in the success or failure of a diverse workforce” (Chrobot-Mason,
Ruderman, Nishii, 2013, pg. 317). Leadership plays a significant role in making sure that the
team is successful, and by having an open mind to learning about the uniqueness of each person
in the team. Developing awareness will help leaders recognize and analyze what is happening in
their organization (Connerley, pg. 78), which includes opinions, attitudes, assumptions, and
values (Connerley, pg. 77). In my experience as a leader at my current job, having an awareness
to a diverse team helps me recognize strengths in individual team members. With this, I am
able to place them in certain roles and give them responsibilities based on what they are good to
maximize the quality of service we can provide. Recognizing their strengths and their abilities
will make them feel appreciated which could increased productivity and motivation to work
hard. It will also result in “outcomes of ethical beliefs and perceptions” (Gotsis & Grimani, pg.
251) encouraging team members to believe in the purpose because they actually do. When team
members actually believe in the purpose of the organization, they will actually look forward to
showing up for work and be comfortable to suggest ideas and strategies that will increased the
quality of performance from individual team members.
My approach to leadership is to have a passive or nonassertive power style, which is being
“polite, using pleasant emotional tones, with the aim of avoiding problems” (Williams, 2008, pg.
141). The benefits to having this style is that it creates a comfortable work environment, in
which I believe that team members can go to their leaders and not feel intimidated in confiding
in them. This style doesn't create problems within the team and I believe that it will encourage
team members to be respectful towards one another. It also helps with high conflict situations
and often used by members from various culture orientation (Williams, 2008, pg. 141). At my
workplace, we have interactions with customers from other cultures. When there is a conflict
with a language barrier, it is useful to use this type of power style to solve the conflict. It’s
important to use a polite and pleasant tone so that the conflict doesn’t escalate and so that the
customer doesn’t feel that they’re being attacked by the employees. I’ve had an experience with
a customer being upset because he felt that we were treating him differently, because he was
dressed in sweat pants. I assured him that he wasn’t being treated differently and used a calm
voice to deescalate the situation, and apologized for making him feel this way. After completing
what he had asked to do, he was satisfied before leaving the store. The negatives to having this
style is that it “can send mixed messages, with receivers being uncertain about the beliefs and
feelings of the passive communicator”. It can have an impact on the team causing resentment
and confusion within the team (Williams, 2008, pg. 142). Another approach to leadership that I
used is the Situational Approach. This approach “requires an individual to be able to adapt his
or her leadership style to the demands of different situations” (Williams, 2008, pg. 152). I
believe that it’s important to adapt the current situation because not every workplace or shift is
going to be the same every single time. At my workplace, I work with different people every
shift, new team members and old team members. New team members may need more support
and direction when it comes to completing tasks and solving conflicts. With older team
members, I am able to give them more control of their responsibilities and more trust in
completing tasks.
Overall, this module opened my mind to challenges and benefits to having a diverse team
and organization. I feel lucky that I had experience in working with different types of people
that helped me gain the experience to grow as a leader. The concepts that I learned in this
module and in this course is something that I will keep in mind in my career and other aspects of
life.

Reference:

Starbucks. https://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/mission-statement

Chrobot-Mason, D., Ruderman, M.N. & Nishii, L.H. (2013). Leadership in a Diverse Workplace. Chapter
18 in The Oxford Handbook of Diversity and Work. ASU Library Holdings.

Williams, K. (2008). Effective Leadership for Multicultural Teams. Chapter 6 in Effective Multicultural
Teams: Theory and Practice. ASU Library Electronics Holdings.

Gotsis, G., Grimani, K. Diversity as an aspect of effective leadership: integrating and moving forward.