| Author: | Fung, Tat Sun Patrick |
| Title: | Realizing diverse teams’ potential : an individuating ideology about cultural diversity |
| Advisors: | Savani, Krishna (MM) |
| Degree: | D.B.A. |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Subject: | Diversity in the workplace -- Management Communication in management -- Cross-cultural studies Corporate culture -- Cross-cultural studies Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Faculty of Business |
| Pages: | vi, 129 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Corporate globalization has been on the rise in recent years as companies seek to expand their reach into emerging markets (EMEs) take advantage of new consumer bases and lower production costs. However, this trend of investing in emerging markets present unique challenges, particularly when it comes to cultural differences and team diversity. As companies venture into new territories, they encounter different cultural norms, languages, and business practices that can pose significant barriers to success. Diverse teams often perform better than non-diverse teams because they have a wider range of ideas and experiences to draw upon, but these latent benefits are often not realized due to various types of conflict that arise due to cultural variations in communication, decision-making, and values. Past research has focused on either the colorblindness ideology, which ignores employees’ cultural backgrounds and instead emphasizes their uniqueness, or the multicultural ideology, which focuses on celebrating cultural differences while ignoring individuals’ uniqueness. I propose a new "culturally individuating" diversity ideology that balances recognizing employees’ cultural backgrounds with emphasizing employees’ strengths and weaknesses as individuals. This ideology could enhance team cohesion and performance by promoting tailored development and leveraging individual competencies over cultural stereotypes. Adopting a cultural individuating ideology by focusing on individuality can be more effective than a transaction-based working culture, it can improve team member loyalty and belonging by promoting an inclusive environment where individuals feel valued for who they are. This research also analyses paradoxical leadership behaviours (PLB) as moderators between conflict and team performance and creativity. In this study, I contend that managers who hold an individuating ideology would be better able to help culturally diverse teams realize their potential. That is, previous research has shown that while culturally diverse teams have greater creative potential, these teams also experience higher levels of conflict such as relationship, task, and process friction, which makes it difficult to realize this creative potential. In this study, I suggest that managers with a culturally individuating ideology would be better at minimizing task conflict that can arise in culturally diverse teams and enabling those teams to reach their full creative potential. Furthermore, because each person has different strengths and weaknesses, leaders who subscribe to an individuating ideology that values cultural individuation are more likely to recognize these differences and seek to nurture the strengths and correct the weaknesses of each employee. Furthermore, I contend that managers with a higher individuating ideology are more likely to engage in PLB, which can boost organizational performance and creativity in diverse teams. The study will be carried out in Indonesia through a collaboration between a Hong Kong-based firm and Indonesia's leading local companies. Because of the cross-cultural character of the collaboration, cultural diversity is vital in this context, and identifying measures to enable this partnership to reach its full potential would be very beneficial to both sides. This research makes multiple contributions to the literature. First, it conceptualizes a new diversity ideology that combines positive elements of multiculturalism and colorblindness ideologies and is uncorrelated with both of them. Secondly, it contributes to team conflict literature by identifying a new ideology that individuating ideology predicts lower process conflict in more culturally diverse teams and multiculturalism and colorblindness do not offer comparable benefits. Third, it contributes to the PLB literature by identifying an ideological antecedent and interactions with team conflict. Paradoxical leadership blunted the effect of relationship conflict on team competence. Individuating ideology was associated with PLB, but not multiculturalism and colorblindness. Overall, the document emphasizes understanding cultural differences and managing team cultural diversity as crucial for succeeding in emerging markets. It argues foreign investors must recognize and bridge gaps in communication styles, decision-making, and values to avoid misunderstandings. Fostering individual growth while promoting shared values and inclusive practices can allow diverse teams to thrive. The research aims to conceptualize new approaches to optimizing the benefits of cultural diversity for team performance and creativity. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7920.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 3.02 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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