Examining Task Oriented and Relations Oriented Team Diversity–An Analytic Review of the Banking Industry

Abstract

In today’s competitive business environment, organizations are compelled to stay on their toes at every second of their time to satisfy customers, solve economical and political problems, be cost efficient and innovative and establish a market value and name for itself. Tackling all these problems and hurdles and yet be innovative and creative cannot be managed by individuals alone. Hence, most organizations today have made use of teams, a group of people who work together towards a shared organizational goal. In teams, people from various backgrounds and expertise come together to give their opinion about a certain project so that all perspectives are kept in mind and collaborated before any decision is made. (O'Reilly et al., 1989).Since teams in organizations are made up of a diverse group of people hence there is always a possibility that they will not be able to work together. Banking Industry in Pakistan over the years has increased their focus on team work due to its challenging nature and ever changing demand for innovativeness and competitiveness. This study attempts to investigate the effects of task oriented and relation oriented diversity on team performance in the banking industry. Task oriented diversity involved factors like education, function and organizational tenure while Relation oriented diversity involved factors such as age, gender and ethnicity. The impact on team performance has been measured in terms of team members’ opinion, team leader/DOH opinion and their satisfaction levels. The study has explored how task oriented and relation oriented diversity influences the team performance with respect to three contextual factors namely: Occupational Demography (majority dominated vs balanced), Industry Setting (service industry in particular banking industry) and Team Tenure (short term vs long term). The research findings revealed that the effects of relations –oriented and task oriented diversity on performance was significantly different with respect to contextual moderators and they offer new possibilities for enhancing team diversity outcomes. Therefore based on the study conclusions it is recommended that organizational practices especially HR policies and practices should consider the categorization and elaboration effects of task and relations oriented diversity in service industry. Similarly team tenure is also an important contextual moderator and diversity dynamics should be carefully understood for effective team outcomes especially in long term teams. Other industry level characteristics that have been ignored in earlier team diversity research should be examined since they offer new possibilities for enhancing team diversity outcomes.