Gender Diversity Affects Team Performance - Coursework Example

Gender diversity affects team performance Author name Institutional affiliation Work-force demographics are changing in today’s organizations thus affecting the decisions made by teams. Among the changing demographic aspect is gender composition in teams. The impact of gender diversity on organizations outcomes has been gaining attention from the different spheres of life. Issues of gender diversity in work places have also been raised in favor of gender diversity (Lepin et al, 2002). As a result of these environmental changes, it is expected that work teams that are gender sensitive will increase. This paper seeks to find out whether gender diversity can affect the performance of a team. Being an argumentative paper, the paper will first support the opinion that gender diversity affects team performance and then raise an argument that gender diversity does not affect team performance. Finally, the paper will state its position on the topic. The arguments will be based on research from peer reviewed articles. Hoogendoorn, Oosterbeek and Praag (2011) in their study aimed at finding out the impact of gender performance in business team concluded that a team that has equal gender representation performed better. The research involved teams of business undergraduate students who were to open up business ventures as a curriculum requirement. The researchers manipulated the composition of the genders in the different groups randomly. The groups’ performance were measured based on earnings per share, profit and sales. It was found out that the groups that had equal gender composition performed better while compared with those that were male of female-dominated. It was found out that the reason for excellent performance in the groups that were gender diverse was as a result of the intense monitoring which was not common in homogenous groups. According to Dufwenberg and Muren (2006), decisions in today’s organizations are made by teams but not individuals. Such organizations are for instance government agencies, business boards and collegial courts. The effectiveness of such teams is thus an important aspect in determining the success of an organization. Gender diversity is one important determinant of the effectiveness of the team (Stenzel & Kubler, 2011). The study by Hoogendoorn, Oosterbeek and Praag (2011) comprised of 45 groups with each group comprising of 12 members. This is the standard figure for the number for board members in any company in Europe. In addition, doing business was mandatory for each group and there were incentives provided for a good performance. As such, the groups were motivated to be the best performers considering that ownership of shares was guaranteed. A u-shaped impact of the share of women was the key finding of the study. In other words, business performed well when the women share was between 0.5 and 0.6. The teams were given the same amount of time and the students had the chance to work hard for their team since underperforming would result to the group being fired. An organization whose gender is heterogeneous ensures that there is intense monitoring as opposed to homogenous team (Stenzel & Kubler, 2011). Team members from different sex are forced to take their roles seriously since they are aware that members from the opposite gender are watching. When team members are from the same gender, they tend to divert from pursuing the duties of the team to social affair since they have a lot of social aspects in common (Dufwenberg & Muren, 2006). On the other hand, Apesteguia, Azmat and Iriberri (2011) in their research aim at determining the impact of gender diversity on team performance have a different opinion. Their conclusion is based on the study of a large business game played by a group of three, each of the participating groups acting as a general manager. The competition involved two competitions, one of undergraduate students while the other involved MBA students. The analysis of the study results indicated that the group that involved three women scored the lowest score and was defeated by all gender composition in the undergraduate and MBA levels. Looking further across the performances, Apesteguia, Azmat and Iriberri (2011) found out that all undergraduate three women teams underperformed and were outperformed throughout. Further, the authors established that the groups comprising two women and one woman in the MBA category performed the best. The reasons for the different performances were based on the differences in decision making. The authors found out that three women teams were not aggressive in pricing and invest less in research and development when compared to other teams and instead invested more on social sustainability as opposed to other gender compositions. The difference in performance in genders can be based on the behavior of the gender. Women tend to underperform while compared to men of the same education level and age (Stenzel & Kubler, 2011). The research by Apesteguia, Azmat and Iriberri (2011) concluded that women tend to be more prone to risks than their male counterparts. The reason for this is because social preferences in women acquire a higher priority and are situationally specific as opposed to men (Stenzel & Kubler, 2011). Women social orientation is not stable but their social preferences are very high. Apesteguia, Azmat and Iriberri (2011) further finds that women more reluctant to competition while compared to men. Gender differences in social preferences and risk altitudes in a competitive environment are important implications when trying to understand the social and economic outcomes in team performance (Smith, 2007). There are two main issues that are center for discussion in connection with gender difference in the recent past; gender gap in the workforce and the contribution of women in developing human power. The physical abilities of different gender play an important role in determining the success of a group. Looking at Apesteguia, Azmat and Iriberri (2011) research, it is possible that women who are less shy group themselves in one team because they are not able to interact with men. However, it may be difficult to determine the physical abilities of the individual team members but this factor can play an important role in determining the best team. The research on gender difference is commonly based on the individual level even though key decisions on modern economies are made by teams or groups of people. Studies have shown that groups are more equalitarian and generous when their composition has a higher number of women (Lepin et al, 2002). On the other hand, females have higher chances of succeeding in joining a committee when there are a higher number of men in the recruiting panel. It is for this reason that, Smith (2007) notes that companies that have had a good record in performance do not necessarily have the issue of gender diversity into consideration. The issue of gender diversity has been discussed over long period of time. Generally, women tend to be disregarded in work places since they are not considered as effective as men. However, there are certain jobs that are considered to be female oriented even though men still compete in such jobs. An example of such jobs is nursing, the job description of a nurse makes the job to appear female oriented and thus favor females. Men have however dominated most of the jobs in today’s labor market to the extent that there are provisions set in constitutions of some countries in order to ensure that a certain percentage of the available jobs is set for women. Gender diversity in work places implies that all genders are represented. This is an important consideration since both men and women may have the same academic qualifications and sometimes capabilities. But what should be done when one of the genders lacks the required capability and gender diversity has to be taken into account? In today’s world, women and men have the opportunity to pursue their dream career irrespective of gender. It thus implies that there can be as many qualified women as men seeking competitive jobs. This has resulted to success stories of women who have lead huge organizations and acquired excellent results better than their male counterparts. In reference to this paper’s opinion, women should be allowed an opportunity to exercise what they can do by merit. Since there are many men who are qualified than women, women should have a special consideration when they are competing against men. When men are left alone to make up teams like company boards or other organization teams, they may not be effective since they may lack intensive monitoring. But when gender diversity is recognized, a team is likely to achieve positive results as a result of intense monitoring from both genders. In as much as gender diversity is important for the performance of a team, it is worth to note that there are various strengths and weaknesses that are evident in either gender. Women tend to exhibit more weaknesses than men in leadership some of which are due to natural conditions while others are as a result of the society itself. To begin with, women lack equal education opportunities since they need time for their family back at home. This makes them to be left few steps behind their male counterparts who have the chance to study fully without limitations. In developing countries, women are not allowed to take leadership roles and to some extent to even study. This leaves the leadership of most organizations in such countries to men. Socially, women tend to have preference on social life when they come together at the expense of the main business. This implies that a team made up of women alone can be very slow in discussing and implementing some ideas. In conclusion, gender diversity is an important aspect in ensuring the performance of a team. This is because all genders are equal members of the society and thus have the right to be well heard through representation. The most important thing is to ensure that the representation addresses the goals of the organization. There is no need to have balance the gender equally yet one of the genders is either weak or lack equivalent capabilities. The aim of gender diversity is to ensure that an organization’s goals are met through a participative approach that is effective in driving the organization forward. In the case where gender diversity is disputed, a consensus should be reached on what ratio the gender should be represented. References Apesteguia, J., Azmat, G. & Iriberri, N. (2011). The Impact of Gender Composition on Team Performance and Decision-Making: Evidence from the Field. Management Science, D03; D21; J16. Dufwenberg, M., & Muren, A. (2006).Gender composition in teams. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 61, 50-54. Hoogendoorn, S., Oosterbeek, H. & Praag, M. (2011). The impact of gender diversity on the performance of business teams: Evidence from a field experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 4(17): 1-29. Lepin, A. J. et al, (2002). Gender Composition, Situational Strength, and Team Decision-Making Accuracy: A Criterion Decomposition Approach. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Process, 88(1):445-475. Smith, E. (2007). Gender influence on firm-level entrepreneurship through the power structure of boards. Women in Management Review, 22(3): 168-186. Stenzel, R. I., & Kubler, D. (2011). Gender differences in team work and team competition, Journal of Economic Psychology, doi: 10.1016/j.joep. 2011. 05.011. Read More