Leading diversified workforce to improve organizational network effectiveness

Abstract

Organizations are now operating in an intensely competitive environment which requires them to drastically change their business models and managerial perspectives. Organizational network related dynamics are valued as important competitive tools in order to meet these challenges. Thus to succeed in the highly competitive environment, new methods must be developed to bring out the best from the available workforce. However, to make today’s employees possess the skills and commitment required to stay competitive; their expectations should be recognized and matched with the organizational purposes. Diversity emerges as an important trend which should be managed effectively to succeed in this competitive process. Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. Accordingly, this study will focus on important dynamics in coordination of diversified workforce and exemplify certain organization based interventions for leveraging organizational network effectiveness. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to understand how to coordinate workforce diversity in order to maximize social network effectiveness and to underline the role of the leader-manager in increasing effectiveness through utilizing diversity. Following this vein, a brief literature review will be presented to depict most important constructs and dimensions proposed by modern management literature.