Team Diversity

Team diversity refers to the uniqueness of different individuals constituting a team (Levine, 2012). Individuals may differ from each other by virtue of religion, race, age, sex, and cultural background. Team members may possess different personality, which make them extroverts, introverts, conservatives, or liberals (Tan, 2012). Therefore, team members may fail to agree on various issues because of the differences that exist among them. Team diversity may have useful or devastating effects on the effectiveness of goal accomplishment (Forsyth, 2010). This paper will consider the diversity that exists in my learning team, as well as the negative effects that the diversity has on the effectiveness of the learning team.

My learning team constitutes of international male and female students. Some of the students have problems communicating in English, both writing and speaking. This has affected daily discussions negatively because of a misunderstanding. Team members fail to arrive at a conclusion because of a language barrier. The difference in gender has also affected the learning team negatively. The female students feel that they belong to the inferior sex, thereby fail to participate fully (Levine, 2012). This forces the male students to complete most of the assignments independent of the female students. The team members fail to meet during odd hours, especially at night because female students are always afraid of moving on the streets at night. Professors complain about the habitual submission of late assignments, which do not meet the academic requirements. Therefore, the diversity of my team members has affected the academic performance of the learning team negatively.

In conclusion, team diversity may affect the performance of a learning team negatively. Differences in language and gender can have negative impacts on the performance of a learning team because of misunderstanding cultural perceptions (Forsyth, 2010). For instance, international students may have problems with spoken and written English. On the other hand, females may perceive that they belong to an inferior sex. Both language barrier and the feelings of inferiority have a devastating effect on the participation of the members of a learning team (Levine, 2012). Therefore, a team may fail to achieve various goals because of team diversity.