The most common ethics that are established in a working environment are sincerity, responsibility, quality, commitment, and overall teamwork. These ethics also depend on how an individual person performs their job, handles their responsibilities, and their communication with others. Without these factors, a group of people could potentially fail when it comes to working and communicating effectively with each other.
Naturally, women and men both have their differences in personality and when approaching said work ethics. Despite these differences though, the dynamic created by gender diversity in groups hold a high probability of creating a successful working environment in multiple ways. When a male or female is introduced to a group that consists of their same sex, their group could get work completed quite easily. For both men and women, it is much simpler to communicate with the same sex because of the sole fact that it is a group full of the same gender. It is easier for the person to understand their group members since they essentially share a lot of the same traits.
With that being said, this might also cause difficulty within a group if it just consists of the same gender. It is a possibility that same sex groups can get work done much slower because of how members could share common interests, thoughts, and can easily focus on topics outside of their work. Although when faced with gender diversity, the opposing traits of men and women truly work together well. Women in general are empathetic people. They are more likely to work towards social cooperation, are inclusive, be conscious of their decisions, and tend to organize and thoroughly deliberate any ideas presented to them. On the contrary, men are more competitive and task-oriented.
Men are more extraverted than women are. They are more decisive and objective when it comes to their ideas and opinions. More or less, men are more domineering when faced with certain group conflicts or confound situations as well. How does this effectively work in a group setting if these are such distinct personality differences? Most of the time what one gender lacks, the other can provide. For example, a female could be less assertive when it comes to personal issues with a group member whereas a male may address the situation right when it occurs. If a male does not understand a topic or needs more information, females are more people oriented and is fine with asking any additional questions.
It is not to say that gender differences “do not imply that men and women only experience states on opposing ends of the trait spectrum; on the contrary, significant differences can exist along with a high degree of overlap between the distributions of men and women” (Weisberg, Yanna, 2011). Yet the general dynamic of gender diversity comes in handy when working together, making decisions, and discussing ideas and/or addressing conflicts within their group.
There are many benefits for considering gender diversity when forming a group. “Heterogeneous teams produce results perceived to be of higher quality by peers than results produced by homogeneous teams” (Vandermaas, Johanna, 2014). Differences in motivations between two genders may seem intimidating, but when it comes to producing sufficient amounts of work it comes in favor. Diversity allows for more feedback and for more productivity in the work space. It allows for new judgments to take place and opinions to be formed.
A study was conducted by researcher Dwight D. Frink of the University of Mississippi to observe gender diversity and how each gender responded to each other while working in groups. Frink overall concluded that “gender diversity might help performance while a lack of gender diversity might cause problems” (Kiavitz, David A, 2003). Frink observed that men and women have a way of doing things differently in a way that can benefit their group environment. Men and women gather information differently, as woman collect most information while men collect just the most important points.
They also communicate differently, as men focus more so on one specific factor and women tend to intertwine everything into one. Both genders bring significantly important skills to their group environment which greatly affects the way their work is going to turn out. These differences are also extremely beneficial in brainstorming viewpoints, promoting team effectiveness, and changing group dynamics if needed. In general, “different types of people see the world in different ways.
Having divergent perspectives can be helpful when groups are trying to come up with creative ideas or solve complex problems” (Kiavitz, David A, 2003). Gender diversity in groups can lead to access to more resources for information and the spread of knowledge that might have been absent before. These differences are also paid more attention to because of the way that they are brought up by the opposite gender.
Having this specific kind of diversity allows for concepts to be available if they were not previously. It allows plans to be brought up that other members may not thoughts about. These elements will increase the interaction within groups, thus leading to a better work environment and relationships between members. As much as this diversity truly creates a powerful work setting, there are also problems that can arise as well. Like stated before, the fact that men and women view things in the world differently can be advantageous to their group. Yet, this could also lead to major conflict within group members because disagreements may occur. Characteristics of each gender may clash as well, as men tend to be more dominant and women tend to evoke more emotion. “Emotions also affect the perceptions of probability…in identical situations, women tend to feel fear and men tend to feel anger” (Croson & Gneezy, 2009).
Since both genders experience emotions provoked from conflict or general opinions in different ways, this can lead to a decrease in communication between both parties. Competition may also lead to future problems. Men are naturally more competitive than women, and when one person is more competitive than another it can lead to members feeling like their opinion or help is not that important. “Women are expected to enact less instrumental behavior than men and to create hierarchical structures of power and prestige less often. In mixed-gender settings, women are expected to hold a disproportionate share of low-status positions on power and prestige hierarchies” (Walker, Henry A.).
This can also create tension between members if women feel belittled by their male group members actions. As it is critical to have diversity in these groups, it should also be taken into account the way groups members ideas and behaviors are being perceived and how the individual person is being treated. These simple things can lead to conflict just as easily as it can lead to any compromises. Overall, gender diversity in groups are an essential part to having a successful working environment and cooperation between team members. Having diversity in something as simple as gender can considerably increase the way a group performs tasks, shares ideas, and work collectively to get their jobs done. Without gender diversity, it would be difficult to get access to additional knowledge, thoughts, and ideas that may have been unavailable to members if diversity within the group setting had not been established in the first place.
