Are individual differences an asset in the work place?

Overview:

The world's increasing globalization requires more human interaction among people from many different cultures and diversities. With the importance of organizational culture nowadays, many leaders are faced with the overwhelming task of having to effectively and efficiently manage the diverse natures of individuals in their particular workplaces. Managing diversity is planning and implementing organizational systems and practices to manage people so that the potential advantages of diversity are maximized while the potential disadvantages are at a minimum. Having people with different cultural backgrounds can sometimes be as equally important to an organizations success and it is crucial that the right types of leaders with the proper trainings are in place to be able to utilize each individual’s skills and abilities to create a good working environment.

In this study, aspects of individual differences including: Heredity factors, abilities and skills, different aspects of individual’s attitudes, and individual personalities and behaviors will be observed to test my theory of why individuals of different diversities are an asset in the workplace. The study objective is intended to determine just how individual differences are an asset in the workplace.

The article that influenced my question the most was the article titled “Investigating Cultural Differences in Virtual Software Teams”. This particular articles title actually caught my eye much due to the fact that I work in a similar environment on a software development team. I thought that comparing an actual virtual software team to a traditional in-house software team would be interesting mainly because virtual teams operate under a networked structure and need structured communication which they execute primarily through an