UNIT 3- Teamwork and diversity

Question 1

What is teamwork?

Answer 1

The process of working collaboratively with a group of people in order to achieve a goal

Question 2

What is teamwork built on?

Answer 2

a common goal

Question 3

How many % of corporate executives, employees, and educators believe a lack of alignment within a team directly impacts the outcome of the task/project?

Answer 3

97%

Question 4

Ways to foster teamwork:

Answer 4

1. Get to know your team members
2. Agree on a team mission
3. Promote sharing
4. Map goals and timelines
5. Ensure clear communication
6. Build the team relationship outside the office

Question 5

Diversity

Answer 5

It is the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc

Question 6

Diversity and inclusion

Answer 6

An economic issue

• gender
• nationality
• culture
• rase
• background
• NOT religion

Question 7

Key aspects for effective teams

Answer 7

1. Team dimension
2. Complementary skills
3. Common purpose
4. Common approach
5. Known structure
6. Mutual accountability

Question 8

Job Characteristics Model- Hackman/Oldham

Answer 8

Core job dimension –> Psychological states –> Personal and work outcomes

1. Meaningfulness of work:
   - skill variety
   - task identity
   - task significance
2. Responsibility
3. Knowledge of outcomes

These factors combined equals:
- high internal work motivation
- high-quality work performance
- high satisfaction with the work
- low turnover

Question 9

Key aspects when managing diversity:

Answer 9

• age
• ethnicity
• class
• gender expression
• physical abilities
• race
• sexual orientation
• socio-economic status
• educational background
• geographical location
• income
• marital/parental status
• work experience
• world views (political, religious, ideological)

Question 10

Erin Meyer- the culture map

8 parameters to compare cultures:

Answer 10

1. Communication (Low context- high context)
2. Evaluating (Direct negative feedback- indirect)
3. Persuading (Concept first- application first)
4. Leading (Egalitarian- hierarchical)
5. Deciding (Consensus- top down)
6. Trusting (Task based- relationship based)
7. Disagreeing (Confrontational- avoid confrontation)
8. Scheduling (Linear time- flexible time)

Question 11

Leadership definition

Answer 11

The art of influencing people to get them to work voluntarily and enthusiastically in the fulfillment of the group’s goals.

Question 12

Great leaders start with self leadership:

Answer 12

1. Self-awareness
2. Self-reflection
   3- Self-regulation

Question 13

4 elements that influence the style of leadership

Answer 13

• personality
• environment
• collaborators
• culture

Question 14

Traditional leadership approaches

Answer 14

1. Traits approach (personal characteristics)
2. Behavioral approach (actions)
   - autocratic leaders
   - democratic leaders
   - laissez-faire leaders
3. Contingency approach
4. Power and influence theories
5. Transformational

Question 15

Traits approach (Personal characteristics)

Answer 15

• argue that effective leaders share a number of common traits/skills
• examples: integrity, empathy, assertiveness, good decision-making skills ++)
• none of these traits/ combination of them will guarantee that someone is a great leader

Question 16

Autocratic leader

Answer 16

• makes decisions without consulting their team
• considered appropriate when decisions need to be made quickly and there is no need fro input
• when team agreements isn’t necessary for a successful outcome

Question 17

Democratic leader

Answer 17

• allows the team to provide input before making a decision
• the degree of input can vary from leader to leader
• important when team agreement matters
• can be difficult to manage when there are many ideas and perspectives

Question 18

Laissez-faire leaders

Answer 18

• dont interfere- let the people within the team make many of the decisions
• works when the team is highly capable and motivated- don’t need close supervision
• will fail when I appears because the leader is lazy or distracted

Question 19

The best leaders use:

Answer 19

The best leaders are those who can use many different behavioral styles, and choose the right style for each situation.

Question 20

Contingency Theories – How Does the Situation Influence Good Leadership?

Answer 20

The realization that there is no one correct type of leader led to theories that the best leadership style depends on the situation. These theories try to predict which style is best in which circumstance.

Question 21

Power and Influence Theories – What Is the Source of the Leader’s Power?

Answer 21

Power and influence theories of leadership take an entirely different approach – these are based on the different ways that leaders use power and influence to get things done, and they look at the leadership styles that emerge as a result.

• French and Raven’s Five Forms of Power
• Transactional

Question 22

French and Raven’s Five Forms of Power

Answer 22

This model highlights three types of positional power – legitimate, reward, and coercive – and two sources of personal power – expert and referent (your personal appeal and charm). The model suggests that using personal power is the better alternative, and that you should work on building expert power (the power that comes with being a real expert in the job) because this is the most legitimate source of personal power.

Question 23

Transactional

Answer 23

This approach assumes that people do things for reward and for no other reason. Therefore, it focuses on designing tasks and reward structures. While this may not be the most appealing leadership strategy in terms of building relationships and developing a highly motivating work environment, it often works, and leaders in most organizations use it on a daily basis to get things done.

Question 24

Transformational leadership style

Answer 24

Is often the best leadership style to use in business.
Transformational leaders show integrity, and they know how to develop a robust and inspiring vision of the future. They motivate people to achieve this vision, they manage its delivery, and they build ever stronger and more successful teams.

Question 25

Diversity- profitability

Answer 25

Gender and ethnic diversity are clearly correlated with profitability, but women and minorities remain underrepresented.
Gender diversity on executive teams is strongly correlated with profitability and value creation.

Question 26

Causes that affect diversity

Answer 26

• demography
• cultural
• functional

Question 27

Demographic and social causes

Answer 27

Changes in the composition population of labor market:

• massive incorporation of women into the workplace
• aging of the population

The scarcity of talent implies the need to appreciate talent and look for working with diversity Teams with different gender and age

Question 28

Cultural causes:

Answer 28

• globalization
• clients diversity
• foreigners resident changes

Globalization ant the importance of innovation has shown the importance of having teams with different nationalities to better understand and respond the clients needs

Question 29

Functional or professional causes:

Answer 29

The need for innovation implies working with multifunctional teams with different:
- training and background
- strengths and personalities
- experience

Question 30

Types of characteristics that affect performance:

Answer 30

External: age, race, gender
Internal: level of training, structure, family, beliefs, etc

Question 31

Why are companies paying attention to diversity?

Factors driving employee inclusive and diversity policies:

Answer 31

1. Retaining our existing talent
2. Improving business outcomes through more diverse teams
3. Attracting prospective talent
4. Better reflecting our customers and community
5. Addressing future talent and skills shortages
6. Addressing current talent and skills shortages
7. Improving/maintaining gender balance
8. Assembling the best team, regardless of geographic location.

Question 32

For those who believe there are barriers to introducing gender equality policies, the most common issues are :

Answer 32

• The complexity of translating good intentions into practice
• Followed by stereotypes about gender roles
• Business culture that is unsupportive of diversity

Question 33

Inclusion actions driving gender diversity- actions taken to ensure employee and inclusion

Answer 33

• Promoting work-life balance and/or flexibility for employees
• Instilling new working practices to better engage all employees including long term virtual and flexible working
• Creating an environment where all colleagues can speak up with ideas, issues and questions
• Adapting existing learning and development programmes to the changing environment eg by making them virtual
• Paying careful attention to employees’ individual working styles and adapting approaches accordingly
• Encouraging and/or maintaining an open-door policy among middle and/or senior management
• Encouraging senior management to act as role models/champions

Question 34

Specific plans to consider:

Answer 34

1. Create your own diversity benchmarking tool to track progress
2. Re-evaluate your business key performance indicators
3. Publicize concrete diversity and inclusion policies and targets
4. Formalize information sharing on diversity and inclusion
5. Ensure diversity and inclusion are an integral part of your company’s values.