Blog 1 Diversity has been touted in various pop management textbooks as the one-stop solution for all an organizations

HRM needs and problems. Obviously, as with all pop literature, it is important to investigate the peer-reviewed literature to realize a more accurate picture of the topic. Indeed, there has been support in peer-reviewed literature for such a notion. Hoffman (1959) found that diversity resulted in greater group performance because of access to greater skill sets and different perspectives. McLeod et al (1996) found that ethnical diverse workgroups produce better decisions than nondiverse workgroups. Etsy et al. (1995) summarized the benefits of diversity as reduced lawsuits, increased marketing opportunities, better recruitment, increased creativity and enhanced business image. However, there also have been many negative perspectives and associations in peer-reviewed literature regarding diversity. Hewstone et al. (2006) found that gender diverse workgroups typically tend to result in increased conflict, polarization of females, and inconsistent effect of work performance. Rupp et al. (2006) observed that age diverse workgroups declined in performance when greater older aged members were included in the group. More interesting have been the results of meta-analysis studies. Joshi and Roh (2007) investigated all literature regarding workplace diversity and found that there were an equal number of studies which proposed positive or negative outcomes of diversity. Interestingly, in studies which investigated workplaces wherein diversity management was effectively instituted mostly beneficial outcomes of diversity were found. As such, it can be proposed that while diversity does have its benefits, effective diversity management needs to be implemented for the benefits of diversity to be reaped. The implementation of diversity management is quite a simple process if one ascribes to the right model of implementation. If a leader in an organization wishes to realize the benefits of diversity, various researches have investigated the applicability of different leadership styles for diversity management. In each proposed model there are some overarching similarities. It should be understood that diversity management has been described differently by most literature and this is what has resulted in the variety of proposed models (Bledsoe and Oatsvall, 2008). Nevertheless, most proposed leadership models on how to implement diversity management are quite similar. Barrett

and Beeson (2002) propose a leadership style contingent upon the leader being a master strategist, change manager, relationship network builder, and talent developer who creates an environment of constant motivation for every organizational member. Crossan and Olivera (2006) also opined that an important aspect of instituting diversity management was to ensure equal delegation amongst all team members and a culture of distributed leadership. From these proposals, it is quite clear that a leader who wishes to implement diversity management should closely align with an engaging interactive leadership style for effective implementation of diversity management. This is also what is proposed by Mintzberg (2004). Workplace diversity in the automobile manufacturing is increasingly becoming important. This owes mostly to the globalized nature of todays automobile industry. According to Ozbilgin (2005), the increased globalized nature has necessitated that most firms maintain a global image and for this reasons almost all multinational players have instituted diversity management policies. The institution of diversity management has also been motivated by the criticism that the Japanese automobile manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors faced in the 1990s for discrimination at the workplace. The results of instituting diversity management and maintaining a diverse workplace have so far witnessed positive results in the automobile industry. General Motors and Mitsubishi have both so far reported positive impacts on work performances because of instituting diversity at the workplace. General Motors have found that diversity management has allowed it to leverage individual capabilities and hence improve company performance. Mitsubishi also has realized several benefits of diversity management, such as the ability to acquire top talents, discover new opportunities through a diverse range of perspectives and have a better corporate image. From the research into diversity literature, one thing is quite clear; there is no conclusive benefit that can be stated about diversity at workplace. The literature on diversity is as diverse as the topics namesake. There are indeed potential benefits of a diverse workplace. However, there are also several potential costs and most literature observes that diversity doesnt have much of an impact. Nevertheless, besides the general costs and benefits, much literature on diversity and diversity management is quite positive. Implementing diversity management can be easily achieved by a leader

through engaging interactive leadership. Diversity management also has a lot of case evidence in its favour. Moreover, there are also benefits of diversity management in our chosen industry of automobile manufacturing. Hence, it might be realized that the authors perspective is mostly true despite there being a significant amount of peer reviewed literature against it.

References Bledsoe MT and Oatsvall RJ. 2008. "Diversity Management: A Preliminary Review of Selected Non-Prot North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities". Journal of Diversity Management, 3(1), pp. 713. Crossan M and Oliviera F. 2006. "Cross-Enterprise Leadership: A New Approach for the 21st Century". Ivey Business Journal, 70(5), 16. Esty K, Griffin R and Schorr-Hirsh M. 1995. Workplace Diversity - A Managers Guide to Solving Problems and Turning Diversity into a Competitive Advantage. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corporation. General Motors. 2013. Diversity - Our Areas of Focus. Available at http://www.gm.com/ (Accessed 16 August 2013) Hewstone M, Crisp RJ, Contarello A, Voci A, Conway L, Marletta G and Willis H. 2006. "Tokens in the tower: perceptual processes and interaction dynamics in academic settings with skewed, tilted, and balanced sex ratios". Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 9(4), pp. 509532. Hoffman L. 1959. "Homogeneity and member personality and its effect on group problem solving". Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58, pp. 2732. Joshi A and Roh H. 2007. "Context matters: a multilevel framework for work team diversity research". In J Martocchio (Eds). Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management (pp. 148). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. McLeod PL, Lobel S and Cox TH. 1996. "Ethnic Diversity and Creativity in Small Groups". Small Group Research, 27, pp. 248264.

Mintzberg H. 2004. Managers not MBAs. London: Prentice Hall. Mitsubishi Corporation. 2010. Respecting People - The Joy of Work. Available at http://www.mitsubishicorp.com/ (Accessed 16 August 2013) Ozbilgin M. 2005. "Global diversity management: the case of automobile manufacturing companies in Japan". Paper presented at the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training, Tokyo, September 8, 2005. Available at http://www.jil.go.jp/ (Accessed 15 August 2013) Rupp DE, Vodanovich SJ and Crede M. 2006. "Age Bias in the Workplace: The Impact of Ageism and Causal Attributions". Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36, pp. 13371364