Leading diverse management teams in logistics

Journal of Business Logistics, 1995 by Andre, Rae

In recent years, much popular and academic management writing has focused on the impending changes in the composition of the workforce and the challenges these changes will create for companies. Of the 25 million people who will join the workforce between 1987 and the year 2000, 85% will be women, racial minorities, and immigrants. By 2000, only about one in five of new entrants to the workforce will be native-born white males, compared with 47% in 1986.(1) In light of these demographic changes, researchers have paid increasing attention to such related issues as the limits to corporate advancement that currently exist for women and minorities,(2) the implications for competitive advantage that arise from a company's capability to manage diversity,(3) and the effectiveness of various current approaches to managing diversity.(4) Today's logistics managers cannot afford to ignore the challenges posed by the newly diverse workforce. Such skills as running an effective intercultural team and mentoring women and minorities are increasingly tied to managerial effectiveness and promotions.

Training programs for managing the newly diverse workforce have been widespread. However, as one professor-consultant team has pointed out, "Both the personal growth and the organizational reform approach to integrating a diverse managerial team have been criticized for falling short of the mark ... Neither approach has resulted in the development of a diverse management team that works cooperatively and synergistically toward common goals" (emphasis added).(5) Training for managing a diverse workforce must impact all levels: the individual, the group, and the organization. Certainly, from the standpoint of integrating individuals into the company through enhancing their commitment and satisfaction, the work team is a key factor. Furthermore, an extensive literature on participative management indicates the centrality of the work team as a factor in organizational effectiveness.(6)

This study addresses the need for research on leading diverse management teams in the logistics industry. It is based on the premise that significant advancement in the management of a diverse workforce can be accomplished through the better management of diversity at the team level. As the diversity of the workforce evolves over the next decade, such team skills will become increasingly important.

To help managers meet this challenge, two sets of questions were addressed in this research. The first was the extent to which diversity is a factor in management teams in logistics today. To answer this question, data on the composition and leadership of management teams, as well as on members' satisfaction with their teams, were collected.

The second question was more complicated: How does the style used by the leader of a diverse management team affect the ability of the team to utilize its diversity to enhance organizational effectiveness? In other words, can management style affect what may be termed "diversity utility"? To answer this question, the relationship between leadership styles for conflict management and such organizational outcomes as employee commitment and creativity were examined. By definition, diverse groups exhibit more individual differences and contain more subgroups than homogeneous groups, therefore increasing the probability of intragroup conflicts. For this reason, conflict management is a key skill required of the leader of a diverse management team. Of course, management of conflict does not necessarily suggest reduction of conflict. It does involve assisting group members to match their own goals and role expectations with those of the organization, and channeling the energies, expertise, and resources of the group members towards the realization of group goals. These outcomes are accomplished through the appropriate choice of conflict management style.(7) Thus, this project focused on leadership styles for conflict management within diverse teams.

Styles for Conflict Management

Several authors have presented typologies for styles of conflict management(8,9,10,11,12) Recent research suggests that four such styles have construct validity.(13) These are: competing, collaborating, compromising, and complying.

These styles have typically been interpreted along two dimensions. One approach defines these dimensions as cooperation, or attempting to satisfy the other party's concerns, and assertiveness, or attempting to satisfy one's own concerns.(14) Thus, competition is assertive and uncooperative. Collaboration is assertive and cooperative. Compromising is intermediate in both assertiveness and cooperativeness. Finally, complying, or "accommodating," is unassertive and cooperative. A second approach defines conflict management styles along the dimensions of concern for people and concern for production.(15) By this way of thinking, the competitive style is low on people concern and high on production concern. Collaboration is high on people concern and high on production concern. Compromising is medium on both people and production concern, while accommodating is high on people concern and low on production concern.