The Negative Effects Of Organizational Diversity

As the importance of diversity in organizations has come to the forefront, beckoned by research touting performance improvements and other benefits, unforeseen negative effects have emerged with it (Joplin & Daus, 2003). The potential ramifications of these negative consequences can diminish, or negate, the potential benefits of diversification. Joplin and Daus (2003) state that these negative consequences have not been studied as robustly as the positive effects. The authors also note that the increasing diversity of the workforce demands that leaders develop stronger skills in order to prevent these issues. Key among these skills is the ability to utilize diverse leadership styles and traits. This paper will discuss several areas where leaders must develop new skill-sets in order to develop lasting diversification and the role self-efficacy can play in organizational diversity.

Organizational Diversity Research has clearly delineated the link between organizational diversity and increased

Although may authors find flexible leadership styles to be an effective means of harnessing the positive attributes of diversity, while concurrently avoiding the potential negative consequences, research has also highlighted the effect of self-efficacy. Combs’ (2002) finding that diversity training fails to produce reliable results, found that employee self-efficacy was a greater predictor of diversity training effectiveness. Similarly, Joplin and Daus (2003) demonstrated that diversity training can often have negative consequences and can promote, rather than reduce, the occurrence of hostility. Therefore, rather than utilizing differing leadership styles with various followers, it is hypothesized that developing overall employee self-efficacy will result in reduced diversification